PARIS — More than three months after a Germanwings airliner crashed into a French mountainside, killing everyone aboard, the airline's parent company, Lufthansa, made its first proposal to pay for emotional damages on Tuesday, offering the German victims' families $28,000 each. Lawyers for the relatives immediately dismissed the figure as inadequate.
The offer came on the same day that a task force led by the German government presented its initial recommendations for improving the monitoring of pilots' mental health, as well as systems and procedures governing access to the cockpit.
French investigators say that the 27-year-old copilot of the Germanwings flight, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately crashed the plane, an Airbus A320, after locking the captain out of the cockpit. Lubitz and the 149 others on the flight, from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, Germany, were killed.
Prosecutors in France and Germany have said Lubitz had a history of severe depression and in the weeks leading up to the crash had sought out numerous doctors for treatment of anxiety, sleeplessness, and a perceived problem with his vision.
Lufthansa said compensation offers to the victims of other nationalities would be made in the coming weeks. The crash victims came from more than 17 countries.