Lufthansa in trouble: the German company, which owns the low cost Germanwings, which a week ago saw its own Airbus 320 crash in the French Alps, risks having to pay unlimited compensation to the relatives of the victims. The hypothesis, which would put the listed airline financially on its knees, emerged following the revelation that Lufthansa was actually aware that the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, responsible for the tragedy, had recently gone through a period of severe depression.
This element cannot fail to think about in the future procedural affair on the quantification of compensation. The insurance consortium led by Allianz and which also includes the American AIG has for now set aside 300 million dollars (about 279 million euros) destined almost entirely to compensate the 149 victims (the part of the plane is "only" 6,5 million), but many experts already say that they will not be enough and that the final figure will be much higher.
But in addition to the damages borne by the insurance pool, there are also those – impossible to calculate – which will weigh on Lufthansa (which is already going through a difficult period) and on the low-cost subsidiary Germanwings, whose image is shattered by this affair. History teaches that for some companies similar dramas (certainly added to other causes) were the beginning of the end. It happened with the American Pan Am, which went bankrupt in 1991, three years after the in-flight explosion over Lockerbie (caused by the bomb of a Libyan terrorist).
It also happened to another American company, TWA, which closed in 2001, five years after one of its Boeing 747s exploded as it took off from New York. Korean Air Lines, after one of its planes was shot down in Russian skies (in 1983), had to change its name and fleet livery. There are now doubts about the future of Malaysia Airlinesafter one of his planes was hit by pro-Russian rebel artillery in Ukraine and another mysteriously disappeared en route between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.
In the meantime, the French Gendarmerie has announced that the collection of the remains (over 4 "pieces") of the bodies at the site of the catastrophe has been completed. According to President François Hollande, by the end of the week, thanks to DNA tests, it will be possible to identify all the victims.
