French aviation investigators said today they will examine "systemic weaknesses" like cockpit entry rules and psychological screening procedures that could have led to the Germanwings crash, while Lufthansa said its insurers set aside USD 300 million to deal with possible fallout from the disaster.
Authorities say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who in the past had been treated for suicidal tendencies, locked the captain out of the cockpit on March 24 before deliberately crashing the Airbus 320 into a mountain in the French Alps. All 150 people aboard the flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf were killed.
The French aviation agency known as BEA said it aims to provide a "detailed analysis" of the Germanwings cockpit voice recorder information and any other flight data but it also plans to widen its search to examine issues that could affect the worldwide aviation industry.
"(We will study) systemic weaknesses (that) might possibly have led to this aviation disaster," BEA said in its first statement since prosecutors detailed the co-pilot's suspected role.
The agency is studying both psychological screening procedures and rules applied to entering and leaving the cockpit in the industry, as well as cockpit door locking systems.
The BEA announcement signaled the latest re-think about airline procedures in the wake of the Germanwings crash, which jolted an aviation industry already reeling from other disasters like the disappearance of planes over the oceans and the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine.
While BEA's findings only apply to this particular accident, if the agency discovered wider problems, that could spark aviation regulators and airline companies worldwide to make changes. This has already occurred even in the last week, with several airlines and the European aviation regulator announcing that they now recommend having two people in the cockpit at all times.
In Frankfurt, Lufthansa spokeswoman Kerstin Lau said UDD 300 million is the amount currently reserved by insurers to deal with "all costs arising in connection with the case."
Last week, Lufthansa Germanwings' parent company offered immediate aid of up to 50,000 euros (USD 54,250) per passenger to relatives of the victims. Those payments are separate from eventual compensation payments.
Airlines are required under a treaty governing deaths and injuries aboard international flights to compensate relatives of victims for proven damages of up to a limit currently set at about USD 157,000 regardless of what caused the crash.
