Family of Israeli victim question airlines' background checks
Baum family express shock at reports saying co-pilot of Germanwings flight deliberately crashed plane; "There were children there, families. How could such a thing happen?'
"The thought that the incident was an act of suicide by one of the pilots is incomprehensible," said Ronnie Baum, the brother of Eyal Baum who was killed in the Germanwings plane crash on Tuesday, in response to emerging reports that the co-pilot of the flight intentionally crashed the plane into the French Alps.
The Baum family in Hod HaSharon expressed on Thursday their deep shock at new and alarming developments in the investigation. "A person gets on a plane, on a business flight, and the last thing one should think about is that the pilot will take the plane and kill himself," Ronnie said. "It raises a lot of concerns. How could such a thing happen? Why don't the airlines check the pilots' backgrounds?"
"Apart from Eyal, there were children, families and parents on the flight, who lost their lives and we are all in shock," Ronnie continued. "I wouldn't wish anyone to go through what we went through."
"We are trying to understand what happened. The family wants clear answers," said Eran Betzalel, Eyal's brother-in-law.
Since the day of the crash, dozens of friends and family members streamed into the home of the Baum family to offer their condolences and support. Also paying their respects at the family's home were senior representatives from Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, including the CEO of Lufthansa Israel Rolf Kohl, the PR communications manager and the company's station manager at the Ben-Gurion International Airport.
"They told us they would update us with more details and that they mainly came to support us," Ronnie said." We are in a lot of pain now and are mostly relying on information from the media, including rumors and abstract details as the investigation is ongoing. We are aware of the fact that the body identification process, if there will even be one, will be long and complicated."
In a statement released yesterday, Lufthansa invited family members of the victims to the scene of the disaster, taking them "to the closest point possible to the accident zone," the airline said. However, the Baum family preferred to stay in Israel, along with Eyal's wife, Eugena, who will arrive on Friday from Barcelona to be with the family members.
"My parents are torn and suffering," Ronnie said. "It is going to take everyone a long time until we all understand what happened there and how we can go on."
Among the visitors were also friends of the family who brought with them pictures of Eyal. "Most of the pictures are from when he was a child, a soldier, and from his post-army trip. We have been looking back through his life and it's difficult, but it's what keeps us strong. We are a small and very tightly-knit family that strengthens one another." Eyal's brother noted.
Earlier Thursday, French prosecutors said Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, "intentionally" crashed the jet into the side of a mountain.
Lubitz barricaded himself in the cockpit and sent the plane full speed into a mountain in the French Alps, ignoring the pilot's frantic pounding on the door and the screams of terror from passengers, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz's "intention (was) to destroy this plane," Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said, laying out the horrifying conclusions reached by French aviation investigators after listening to the last minutes of Tuesday's Flight 9525.
The Airbus A320 was flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf when it began to descend from cruising altitude of 38,000 feet after losing radio contact with air traffic controllers. All 150 on board died when the plane slammed into the mountain.
Robin said the pilot, who has not been identified, left the cockpit, presumably to go to the lavatory, and then was unable to regain access. In the meantime, Lubitz, a 28-year-old German, manually set the plane on the descent that drove it into the mountain.
News agencies contributed to this report.
