Families Of Germanwings Crash Victims Are Being Offered HOW MUCH?!

Hi Ben I know you that understand German so this might be interesting to you: http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/germanwings-absturz-interview-zum-schmerzensgeld-der-lufthansa-a-1043650.html

@Charlie H - You just discounted your argument completely with this sentence “He was not acting on behalf of LH when he set the autopilot to crash”. Sorry, but I think your argument is both ridiculous, and, yes….clearly ignorant. The law on this is clear, which you should be aware of since you seem to be so knowledgeable about the law. The Montreal Convention states that an airline is liable for the “wrongful act” of an employee. Furthermore, in virtually all jurisdictions employers are liable for their employee’s wrongful acts under a legal doctrine known as "respondeat superior" liability. The employer escapes liability if the incriminating actions of an employee is not done while on duty. For example if the pilot murdered someone while shopping in a seven/eleven store, LH would not be liable as he is not on duty. LH is definitely liable under the law, but at issue is if they were negligent or not - which, if they were, could result in them having to pay significantly more damages. I will leave that to the courts to decide.

Keep calling me ignorant all you want, but I am starting to think you don't know what that word means. If the pilot was tearing up a no fly notice, then the pilot was actively hiding his condition from the company. Do the privacy laws in Germany and Europe even allow the company access to mental health records? What law imposes a duty on LH to check up on pilots with mental issues? Cite something, please, if so, then they might be liable. The way things work in the US is that a pilot gets a medical certificate from a doctor authorized by the FAA to issue such medical certificates. The doctor reports this status directly to the FAA. The airline then checks to see of a pilots medical status valid or the FAA notifies the airline of a revoked medical (I don't recall which way it works) If his medical cert. is valid, then he can fly. If a flight doctor revokes the medical cert, then they have to notify the FAA. If a doctor issues a "no fly notice" but didn't notify the authorities, then the doctor might be liable. ... I did some more seraching to support my position, and it looks like, even in Germany, pilot medical records are private. See below: "Medical record emerging Much attention has focused on Lubitz’s state of mind, with suggestions that he may have had mental health issues. Lubitz, 27, passed his annual pilot recertification medical examination in summer 2014, a German aviation source told CNN. He had started working as a commercial pilot in 2013, said Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings. An official with Lufthansa said that the exam only tests physical health, not psychological health. It’s unknown if Lubitz mentioned his problems on a form that asks yes-or-no questions about physical and mental illness, suicide attempts and medications. European pilots must fill out the form to be recertified. ***Federal aviation authorities, not the airline, issue the form. The form is privileged information, and Lufthansa never sees a pilot’s completed form, an airline representative said.*** The airline would only get a “clear to fly” notice from the aviation doctors alerting the airline that a pilot has completed recertification." So I ask again, how is LH suppose to follow up on this and where in the law does LH have a duty to do further investigations? @mallthus He was not acting on behalf of LH when he set the autopilot to crash, maybe in the broader general meaning of those words, he was, but not under the legal meaning of those words in the US. At least under US Law these purposeful acts of the pilot were likely well outside the scope of his employment.

Even if the co-pilot had not been mentally ill and or if they had not been diagnosed, at the end of the day, he was acting on behalf of LH and, acting on behalf of LH, he murdered all of the passengers on the flight. Hence, their deaths fall unequivocally on LH's doorstep.

German (and French and Spanish) tort law is not as different as some here seem to think. What's not recoverable are the sort of "pain and suffering" judgements that are commonly behind the astronomical awards seen in the US. There is plenty of room in the German legal system to support verifiable lost earnings claims, specifically the section on wrongful death, which explicitly accounts for annuities being provided to replace lost support.