Germanwings 4U9525: Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr says crash site is “harrowing”

Lufthansa's chief executive Carsten Spohr has said seeing the site of the crashed Germanwings flight 4U9525 was “harrowing”. 

 

Lufthansa, which owns budget airline Germanwings, held a minute's silence this morning at 10:53 local time (9:53 GMT) exactly 24 hours after contact between French air traffic control and the Airbus A320 broke off. 

 

Spohr's statement was given shortly beforehand, parts of which were tweeted. 

 

He said: "Seeing the site of the accident was harrowing. We are in deep mourning. Our thoughts are with the relatives of the victims.

 

"Germanwings and Lufthansa will do everything in our power to help in an uncomplicated and timely manner

 

"We will enable the relatives to grieve on site as soon as possible.”

 

 The company cancelled one Germanwings flight on Wednesday morning, after cancelling 24 flights the day before.

 

In Brussels, flags were flown at half mast in front of the European Commission, the European Union's executive. 

 

Several Germanwings crew members said they were unfit to fly following news of the crash of flight 9525. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said he understood the crew members' concerns. 

 

"Some have refused their service for personal reasons, but not out of concern that something there is out of order," a spokeswoman told the DPA news agency.

 

Separately Spohr said: "One must not forget: many of our Germanwings crews have known crew members who were onboard the crashed plane.

 

"It is now more important to ensure psychological assistance if needed. And we will get back to a full flight operation as soon as possible then. But for me, this is rather secondary now.”