The story is emerging of a lady who allegedly claimed to be the relative of a Germanwings crash victim in order to score free tickets to the South of France. Via The Local:
The Halterner Zeitung, a local paper from the town which lost 16 school pupils in the March 24th Germanwings crash, reported that the woman claimed to be the cousin of one of the two teachers on the plane. The teachers and students were on their way back from an exchange programme in Barcelona.
The woman brought three people with her on two trips to the south of France at Lufthansa’s expense, as well as visiting the crash site and memorial and accepting psychological counselling.
Lufthansa has now filed charges against the woman, who is from Beverungen in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, after the father of the teacher informed the newspaper of the con.
I’m not sure whether that’s more disgusting or just plain bizarre. Who would want to fake their way to a “free trip” to an airplane crash site? Maybe her accepting counseling isn’t actually that bad of an idea?
In our own country thousands cashed in on Hurricane Katrina fraud, which left over 1,500 dead from Louisiana alone. Why wouldn't a scumbag or four pop up to cash in off a well-publicized plane crash? It is well-known that survivors and family members get free trips plus cash settlements. Of course frauds are going to pop up to try to take advantage. I just hope these folks don't offer up the defense that they were travel hacking.
I think that believing this woman is mentally ill is a security blanket. Sometimes, people ARE horrible, despicable a-holes who do terrible things for purely selfish reasons. We don't want to believe that people are just jerks. We never want to believe that someone would take advantage of a tragedy, but they do, and there isn't a damn thing wrong with the mental state of the despicable human beings who do. My assumption is that...
I think that believing this woman is mentally ill is a security blanket. Sometimes, people ARE horrible, despicable a-holes who do terrible things for purely selfish reasons. We don't want to believe that people are just jerks. We never want to believe that someone would take advantage of a tragedy, but they do, and there isn't a damn thing wrong with the mental state of the despicable human beings who do. My assumption is that this woman is just another a-hole looking to cash in on a tragedy. No counseling needed, just a swift kick in the face.
Very odd woman to say the least.
And while I'm no expert on German law, I can't imagine Lufthansa is able to file charges against her. Sue her, yes. Report her to the authorities so they file charges, yes. But I hope a company can't charge an individual.
All sorts of weirdos come out of the woodwork in these situations. I imagine it's more than just trying to score free tickets. The fact that they visited the crash site etc - I think these people have problems. No normal person would go to such lengths for a con like this.
"Who would want to fake their way to a “free trip” to an airplane crash site?"
Its part of the "cover" of the grieving family member. A small inconvenience for her and friends to fly to the French Riviera, I imagine.
@AlexS this is a bizarre story but I don't know how to make of your comment. But seriously, how f**ked up is this woman?
I'm not normally a fan of the death penalty...but in this case I might make an exception.
Absolut Schrecklich