Germanwings crash: Relatives gather at airports

Barcelo/Dusseldorf/Paris, March 25: Relatives of the 150 people on board an Airbus A320 of a German budget airline that crashed in southern France while flying from Spain’s Barcelo to Germany’s Dusseldorf have gathered at the two airports. The plane operated by Germanwings, the budget carrier of Germany’s Lufthansa airlines, crashed in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the southern French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 on board — 144 passengers and six crew members.

According to media reports, 67 of those aboard the plane were German citizens, including 16 school children from one high school — Joseph Koenig Gymsium — on its way back from an exchange trip as well as two opera singers and 45 from Spain. The flight was also carrying citizens of Australia, Turkey, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Most of the passengers on the flight were German tiols going home after a few days in Barcelo and Palma de Mallorca, Spain’s El Pais daily quoted an official from Barcelo’s El Prat airport as saying.

The passengers also included two workers from the German pharmaceutical Bayer and representatives of several Catalan or Catalan-based companies on their way to a food industry fair in Cologne. The group of 16 German exchange students — all aged 14 and 15 — who were going home after a stay in Llirs del Valles.

A team of psychologists has been dispatched to El Prat airport to provide support to the relatives, who will be asked for D samples by the Catalan police’s scientific unit to help with the body identification.

According to reports by Germany’s intertiol broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, friends and families arriving at the Dusseldorf airport upon hearing about the crash, were taken away by psychologists to help them deal with the trauma. Several Germanwings passengers had their flights delayed or canceled because of disruptions due to the crash, but officials made sure passengers boarding airplanes from Dusseldorf did not panic after hearing about the mishap. Germanwings and Lufthansa have set up a free hotline with number 0800-11335577 for families of passengers involved for care and assistance. (IANS)