Barcelona commemorates Germanwings Flight 9525 disaster ten years on

A commemorative event to mark the 10th anniversary of the Germanwings Flight 9525 disaster which took the lives of all 150 people on board the plane was held on Sunday, with family members of victims and leading figures in Catalan politics present to pay their respects. 

At T2 of Barcelona airport, the 'Association of those Affected by GWI Flight 9525 in the Alps' organized a ceremony consisting of a floral offering, the reading of a poem, and a minute of silence, all held at the commemorative plaque. across the street from the main airport building. 

Among the politicians who attended the event at the airport were Catalan president Salvador Illa, president speaker Josep Rull, and Artur Mas, president of Catalonia at the time of the tragedy.

Association president Lourdes Bonet spoke at the event, as did Artur Mas and Salvador Illa.

Bonet said that despite the fact that ten years have passed, “the light” of the people who died will never go out. “Remembering brings us relief, but it also brings us tears,” she said.

The association was formed by 46 affected families with the aim of clarifying the causes of the disaster, demanding accountability, and promoting the improvement of legislative measures to avoid similar tragedies in the future.

Relatives of victims have repteadly called for legislative change at the European level to speed up the reporting of medical leaves, and for doctors to notify the companies immediately.

In an interview with the Catalan News Agency days before the anniversary, Lourdes Bonet, president of the victims' association, insisted on the need for airlines to comply with European recommendations to tighten controls on pilots, which she believes would be key to minimizing the risk of a tragedy like this happening again.

Germanwings Flight 9525 disaster

The Germanwings Flight 9525 took off from Barcelona on March 24, 2015, destined for Düsseldorf. 

The co-pilot of the aircraft, Andreas Lubitz, crashed the flight into the French Alps. Lubitz, 28, took advantage of the fact that he was left alone at the controls of the plane and blocked the door so that no one else could prevent him from crashing the aircraft.

The perpetrator was on sick leave and undergoing psychological treatment, two things he hid from the company.

Medical leave communication

After long-running demands from the association, on December 27, 2022, Spain reformed medical leaves so that communication between workers from Social Security and companies were made electronically. For Bonet, this process ensures that companies quickly know the situation of their workers without violating privacy.

“If the airline had known that Andreas Lubitz was on medical leave, it would not have let him go to work for that reason alone,” she said.

She wants to extend this measure across Europe, but knows it will be "complicated." 

Bonet says that the danger does not only lie in pilots, but also in drivers of metros, buses, trains, or other forms of public transport. "Everyone needs to be very aware that an event like the Germanwings incident can happen again and that this is the only way to minimize the risk," she affirmed.

Scars for life

Many of the relatives will travel to Le Vernet on Sunday, the town closest to the site of the plane crash, to participate in the now annual event that Lufthansa organizes in memory of the victims.

Bonet explained that there are families in the association who travel to the French town every year to participate and that there are others who have never been.

There are also some, Bonet says, who will now make the journey for it being the tenth anniversary, with the intention of taking a step forward.

“It's not about closing a cycle, it's like a wound that can heal but there is always a scar that you'll have for life, but you can look ahead and move forward,” she said.