justice
Spain: Higher compensation for Germanwings survivors
The crash site in the French Alps. photo
© Sebastien Nogier/EPA/dpa
In 2015, a co-pilot steers a plane into a mountain, killing all 150 occupants. Spain’s Supreme Court now rates the claims for damages for the bereaved as insufficient.
More than eight years after the Germanwings disaster, Spain’s Supreme Court has awarded 14 families higher claims for damages. On March 24, 2015, a previously depressed co-pilot intentionally steered the plane into a mountain on the Barcelona-Dusseldorf route in the French Alps. All 150 occupants were killed. Most victims came from Germany and Spain.
The percentage surcharge on the compensation fixed for car accidents set by the district court in Barcelona in 2019 was too low in the case of the 14 plaintiffs, the judges in Madrid ruled, as announced on Tuesday evening. Other survivors had agreed on a comparison with the insurance company.
The court in Barcelona had increased the compensation by 25 percent because of the exceptional nature of the accident. An additional 20 percent was added if a beneficiary was cohabiting with one of the victims, and 10 percent if not. According to the newspaper “La Vanguardia”, the compensation was between 20,625 euros and 105,000 euros.
The Supreme Court considered this insufficient. “Such a small percentage increase in compensation (…) differs little from what would be granted in the event of a traffic accident,” the judges wrote. “The prolonged grief that is typical and extremely painful for the loss of a loved one in such a disaster is not adequately compensated, all the more so since the accident did not happen by accident, but was deliberately brought about by a crew member,” it said Judgment reasoning.