Commemoration ceremonies have been held in France and Germany to mark the first anniversary of the deliberate crashing of a Germanwings flight in the French Alps. All 150 people onboard the Airbus A320 died in the crash.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Kusch
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More than 600 relatives of the 149 crash victims gathered in the Alpine village of Le Vernet on Thursday to observe a minute's silence.
With the help of volunteer firefighters and mountain guides, around 80 people later made a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) pilgrimage to the crash site at an altitude of around 1,500 meters (4,900 feet). A red stake planted in the soil marks the exact site where the plane went down. Plans to take all friends and relatives to visit the crash site by minibus were called off because bad weather has made the forest road impassable.
Hundreds of relatives of the the crash victims gathered in the French town of Le Vernet, close to the crash siteImage: Reuters/J.-P. Pelissier
Flight 4U9525 was en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf on March 24, 2015, when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 27, deliberately put the plane into a shallow dive, crashing it into the mountainside.
Black box recordings revealed that Lubitz took advantage of the other pilot's excusing himself to use the toilet to lock his colleague out of the cockpit and force the plane to rapidly descend.
The revelation prompted new laws around the world, requiring at least two members of airline staff to be in the cockpit at all times.
School exchange students remembered
Among the 149 crash victims were 15 pupils and two female teachers from Joseph Koenig High School in Haltern, close to Düsseldorf. The staff and students had been returning from a school exchange close to Barcelona.
Church bells in the small German town rang at 10:41 a.m. local time (0931 UTC) on Thursday - the time when the plane crashed. An ecumenical service was held shortly after in Haltern's central square.
"It is true that this accident has changed our town greatly. We have never experienced anything like this," Haltern Mayor Bodo Klimpel said.
"It is certainly the worst and most difficult thing to have happened to this town since the Second World War."
In a letter to the pupils' parents on the anniversary, German Chancellor Angela Merkal said "many people including members of the government [were with them] in their thoughts."
"You are not alone in your pain," she wrote.
A separate ceremony and memorial inauguration was also held at nearby Düsseldorf International Airport. on Thursday. In Spain, several vigils were held on the eve of the anniversary.
US court case
Attending the ceremony in Le Vernet on Thursday were the heads of Germanwings parent company Lufthansa, Thomas Winkelmann and Carsten Spohr.
The airline has denied any wrongdoing but is facing a lawsuit in the US, focusing on the Lufthansa training facility in Arizona.
Lubitz interrupted his pilot training there in 2009 dueto mental health problems. Lawyers for some victims' families argue he should not have been allowed to resume training.
A recent report by French air accident investigators called on Germany to clarify its rules about doctors breaching their patients' privacy when public safety is in jeopardy. Germany's ruling coalition has also called for random drug and alcohol tests to be administered to pilots.
'Not the day for legal issues'
"We are here today to show our respect to the victims and show that we support them," Spohr said on Thursday.
"Today is not the day to talk about legal issues, today we are just here, with 100 Lufthansa employees, to help the families and support them in their grief."
Lufthansa has so far paid out 50,000 euros ($55,000) for each victim. A further 25,000 euros is still to be paid, and next-of-kin are to receive 10,000 euros.
Germanwings crash: Investigators call for new mental health checks for pilots
French investigators have released their final report into the Germanwings plane crash.They believe co-pilot Andreas Lubitz steered the jetliner into the French Alps mountainside last March, killing 150 people on board.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Estevez
Doctors must report mentally ill pilots
The BEA air investigation agency said new guidelines were needed to ensure pilots are properly screened for serious mental health conditions. Doctors should warn authorities if a pilot's psychological state poses a threat to public safety, the report said. But it stopped short of calling for regular psychiatric tests for all pilots.
Image: Reuters/French Interior Ministry/Handout
Lubitz had 'psychotic' incident before crash
The French report revealed how co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was advised to seek treatment at a psychiatric clinic just two weeks before the crash. Investigators said doctors had described his symptoms as compatible with a psychotic episode. Despite a history of depression and the fact he was on two antidepressants at the time of the crash, none of his doctors reported their concerns to authorities.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Foto-Team-Müller
Pilots' privacy or passengers' safety?
Arnaud Desjardins, the head of the French investigators, said on Sunday that the pilot certification process failed to identify the risks posed by Lubitz' severe depression. Germany's confidentiality laws were especially strict and clearer guidelines were needed to establish when public safety outweighed patient privacy, the report said. Germanwings maintains it knew nothing of Lubitz' illness.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/I. Langsdon
Flight 9525's 10-minute descent
On March 24, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed in the French Alps during a flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf. It was carrying 144 passengers and six crew, mostly Germans and Spaniards. Within hours, French investigators said they believed the co-pilot had deliberately caused the tragedy by locking the pilot out of the cockpit and setting the autopilot to a height of just 100 meters (328 ft).
Murder-suicide at high speed
At 10:31 CET, Flight 9525 left its cruising altitude of 12,000 meters (38,000 feet) and began to descend rapidly. French air traffic controllers attempted to make contact but there was no response from the flight deck. Later, audio from the black box flight recorder revealed how the pilot attempted to get back into the cockpit, while Lubitz' breathing remained steady throughout the descent.
Image: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes
No new cockpit rules recommended
The French report did not request a change to cockpit security, despite Lubitz being able to lock the plane's pilot out of the flight deck. The locking system was introduced to keep hijackers from gaining access to the cockpit after 9/11. Following the Germanwings crash, several airlines have made it compulsory to have two people in the cockpit at all times during the flight.
Image: Reuters/L. Foeger
Families want lessons learned
Lawyers for the victims' families say Lubitz' doctors, a US flight training school and the airline were responsible for failing to detect, and act on, his psychological problems. Lubitz had suffered a severe depressive episode during his pilot's training in 2009. The families were informed of the details of the report on Saturday in Barcelona and Bonn, a day before its release.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Fernandez
Victims' remains brought home
The remains of 16 German teenagers and two teachers who had been in Barcelona on a school exchange and were killed in the crash traveled in a convoy of white hearses when they arrived back in Germany two months after the crash. In their home town Haltern, 18 trees - one for each victim - have been planted outside their school.
Image: Reuters/I. Fassbender
New start for the low-cost carrier
Since the tragedy, Germanwings has rebranded and become Eurowings. On Sunday, its parent company Lufthansa welcomed the French recommendations. In a brief statement, the German carrier said that "ensuring the highest possible flight safety was and remains our utmost priority." The company said it would "support the possible implementation of concrete measures" based on the BEA report.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Deutsche Lufthansa
Flight 9525 victims remembered
A monument in memory of the victims stands in the village of Le Vernet in southeastern France. Located close to the mountainous crash site, the tiny hamlet has become a permanent place of memorial for many of the relatives. Over the past year, several trips have been arranged to help the families of those killed get some sort of closure after the tragedy.