Sunday, August 09, 2015

Germanwings crash victims' families plan US lawsuit: Report

Pilot Andreas Lubitz steuerte das Flugzeug in ein Bergmassiv



BERLIN - Relatives of victims of the Germanwings crash in the French Alps hope to take their compensation claims against parent company Lufthansa to a US court, their lawyer said Sunday.


Pilot Andreas Lubitz, 27, has been blamed for deliberately crashing the flight on March 24 headed from Spain to Germany that claimed the lives of all 150 people on board.


"We are preparing a lawsuit in the USA and see good chances of finding a judicial venue in the United States," Elmar Giemulla, who represents 39 families, told the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag.


The plaintiffs wanted to know "how it was possible that a pilot with known mental health problems and a corresponding history was allowed to fly at all," the lawyer was quoted as saying.


The newspaper said compensation in air accident cases in the United States is usually 10 times higher than in Germany.


It was not immediately clear on what legal basis the lawyer wanted the case against the German airline to be heard in the United States.


Giemulla - who told Bild he was in contact with a New York law firm that specializes in aviation claims - could not be immediately reached for comment by AFP.


Relatives of many of the 72 Germans among the dead have turned down Lufthansa's compensation offer and accused the airline of ignoring their suffering.


Lufthansa disbursed 50,000 euros (S$75,882.50) per victim in immediate aid. It has offered 25,000 euros more to each of the families plus 10,000 euros to each immediate relative including parents, children and spouses.


The parents of 16 high school student victims in an open letter to Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr have charged that to put this value "on the life of each of our children and on our pain" was offensive.


Lufthansa has said its offer had gone "well beyond" what was required by German law.


The airline has said it plans to compensate relatives of non-German victims - among them three US citizens - but that it was too early to quantify the exact amount in all cases because laws differed in their countries of origin.


- Source: http://news.asiaone.com 


Angehörige bereiten
Klage in USA vor

Der Germanwings-Absturz in den Alpen mit 150 Toten (darunter drei US-Bürger) wird die Justiz in den USA beschäftigen.

Nachdem die Angehörigen das Entschädigungsangebot der Lufthansa in Höhe von 25000 Euro pro Opfer als zu niedrig abgelehnt haben, wollen sie jetzt in Amerika vor Gericht ziehen.

Rechtsanwalt Elmar Giemulla, der 39 Opferfamilien vertritt, bestätigt BILD am SONNTAG: „Wir bereiten eine Klage in den USA vor und sehen gute Chancen für einen Gerichtsstand in den Vereinigten Staaten. Es geht insbesondere darum, mithilfe des dortigen außergerichtlichen Systems der Beweisaufnahme feststellen zu lassen, warum es möglich war, dass der Copilot mit erwiesenen psychischen Problemen und einer entsprechenden Vorgeschichte überhaupt fliegen durfte.“

Giemulla arbeitet mit der Kanzlei Kreindler und Kreindler aus New York zusammen: „Sie haben weltweit die beste Reputation auf diesem Gebiet und waren an der Abwicklung praktisch aller Großunglücke federführend beteiligt. Eine Klagesumme gibt es noch nicht, aber das Ganze geht nach amerikanischem Recht.“

Source:  http://www.bild.de

Germanwings relatives to launch legal proceedings in US

Berlin - The relatives of those killed in the Germanwings plane crash are launching legal proceedings in the United States against parent company Lufthansa after turning down a payout deemed too low, German tabloid Bild reported on Sunday, citing their lawyer.

"We are preparing a claim in the United States and we see good chances of being granted legal standing," said Elmar Giemulla, who is representing 39 families of the passengers killed in the March 24 disaster that has been blamed on a suicidal co-pilot.

"With the help of the US' out-of-court system of gathering evidence, [we hope to] ascertain how it was possible for a co-pilot with a record of psychological problems ... to be allowed to fly in the first place," he added.

Giemulla is working alongside US law firm Kreindler & Kreindler, which has litigated on a series of aviation-related cases including the 1988 Lockerbie disaster, the 9/11 attacks and the 2013 crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214.

Prosecutors believe that Andreas Lubitz, a 27-year-old co-pilot, deliberately crashed the Germanwings plane into the French Alps after locking the captain of the cockpit and putting the plane into a dive, killing himself and 149 others.

Some media reports suggest that Lufthansa - the parent company of low-budget subsidiary Germanwings - had been aware that he had struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts.

Lufthansa disbursed €50 000 ($55 000) per victim immediately after the crash, and later said that it would offer compensation of €25 000 to the families and €10 000 to each immediate relative.

An insurance consortium led by Allianz set aside €278 million to meet claims connected to the Germanwings crash. The sum is to cover compensation claims by the families, the loss of the Airbus A320 and associated personnel costs.

Source:  http://www.news24.com

Airbus A320-211, Germanwings, D-AIPX

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