Sad homecoming for teen victims of Germanwings crash
DUESSELDORF, Germany -- The coffins of 15 of the 16 German high school students killed in the Germanwings plane crash were leaving Duesseldorf airport on Wednesday in a hearse convoy to their hometown of Haltern.
Lufthansa airline on Tuesday night brought to Duesseldorf the remains of the first 44 of the 150 people killed when a Germanwings plane smashed into the French Alps on March 24.
Authorities say the co-pilot purposely slammed the plane into a mountain.
Parents and relatives will be allowed to visit the coffins inside an airport hangar before the convoy of hearses, accompanied by a police motorcade, heads for Haltern. It is to pass by the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium, the high school the teens attended.
"This entire event is a tragedy, especially for the parents, but we too lost our students and colleagues," said Ulrich Wessel, the high school's principal. Two of the teachers who had accompanied the students on a school exchange trip to Spain were also killed in the crash.
The group was flying back from Barcelona to Duesseldorf when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz crashed the plane against a mountain in France.
"It's especially difficult for the students of grade 10," Wessel said. "There used to be 150 students, now they are only 134 ... Many lost their best friends."
Wessel said psychologists had talked to the students this week and that all students were allowed to attend their schoolmates' funerals. The first burials will be held Friday, the last ones at the end of the month. One teen will not be buried in Haltern.
Police said the convoy is expected to arrive in Haltern, 47 miles from the airport, around 3 p.m. (7 a.m. Eastern).
A spokeswoman for Germanwings said the process of returning remains of the other victims to their home countries had also begun and would likely be finished by the end of June.
"We started the international returns at the same time," spokeswoman Jana Gliese said. "These returns are being conducted individually, according to the wishes of the victims' families."
In addition to the 72 German victims, 47 Spaniards, another four people who were dual citizens with a Spanish passport, and citizens of over a dozen other countries were killed in the crash.