--- description: A leading expert on German aviation law tells TIME that the question of liability in the Germanwings plane crash is "very clear" title: Germanwings Faces Legal Fallout from Plane Crash image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebdd21a1db1a21b0/6987858235ba6f4726c07c38/467580712.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Aviation](/tag/aviation/) ## Aviation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Germanwings Faces Legal Fallout from Plane Crash  by [Simon Shuster / Berlin](/author/simon-shuster/)  ## Simon Shuster / Berlin Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Mar 26, 2015 8:32 PM CUT  A memorial of flowers and candles can be seen in front of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium secondary school in Haltern am See, western Germany on March 26, 2015. A memorial of flowers and candles can be seen in front of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium secondary school in Haltern am See, western Germany on March 26, 2015.Sascha Schuermann–AFP/Getty Images  by [Simon Shuster / Berlin](/author/simon-shuster/)  ## Simon Shuster / Berlin Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Mar 26, 2015 8:32 PM CUT In the minutes before their plane [slammed into a mountainside in the French Alps](http://time.com/3759748/germanwings-plane-crash-andreas-lubitz/ "undefined") this week, many of the passengers on Germanwings Flight 9525 witnessed a terrifying scene at the front of the aircraft. The captain of the plane found himself locked out of the cockpit by his co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, as the plane lost altitude at alarming speeds, officials said Thursday. After banging on the door and beseeching Lubitz to open it, the captain tried to break through its armor plating. Until the final moments, the screams of the passengers could be heard on the flight recorder later found at the crash site, French prosecutor Brice Robin said. Under the aviation laws that apply in this case, these final moments of terror could be part of the airline’s liability, said Peter Urwantschky, a leading German aviation lawyer who has represented the victims of commercial airplane crashes. “What you could have here is pre-death pain and suffering,” he said. “If a court concludes that the passengers knew what would happen, you would have to assess the fear of death in those final minutes.” The broader question of liability for the crash, he added, seems clear in this case. “If you have a pilot with intent to bring down this plane, then you can forget about the liability limit,” he said. “You can say there is no limitation of liability.” ### Witness Scenes From the Plane Crash in the French Alps  Flowers are left in front of the monument in homage to the victims of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 in Le Vernet, southeastern France, March 27, 2015. Alberto Estevez—EPA  German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy pay respect to victims in front of the mountain where a Germanwings jetliner crashed in Le Vernet, France, March 25, 2015. Christophe Ena—AP  A search and rescue worker at the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps, above the town of Seyne-les-Alpes, southeastern France, March 25, 2015. Guillaume Horcajuelo—EPA  Helicopters of the French gendarmerie and emergency services fly over Seyne-les-Alpes as they resume works to recover the bodies and the remains of the Airbus A320 that crashed the previous day in the Alps, March 25, 2015. Alberto Estevez—EPA  French military personnel walk up the mountainside near Seyne, France on March 25, 2015. Peter Macdiarmid—Getty Images  Gendarmerie and French mountain rescue teams arrive near the site of the Germanwings plane crash near the French Alps on March 24, 2015 Patrick Aventurier—Getty Images  French emergency services workers and members of the French gendarmerie gather in Seyne, south-eastern France, on March 24, 2015, near the site where a Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed in the French Alps. Boris Horvat—AFP/Getty Images  An aerial photo shows what appears to be wreckage from the crash of a Germanwings plane in the French Alps, between Barcelona and Digne, March 24, 2015. Duclet Stephane—ZUMAPRESS.com  Relatives of passengers of the Germanwings plane crashed in French Alps are seen at the Terminal 2 of the Barcelona El Prat airport on March 24, 2015 in Barcelona. David Ramos—Getty Images  A worker from a Swissport, a Service Company who is handling for Germanwings airlines, works inside an office in the Barcelona airport, March 24, 2015. Emilio Morenatti—AP  People stand in front of candles and flowers placed in front of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium in Haltern, Germany, March 24, 2015. Imago/Zumapress Such limitations could apply if the causes of a crash are outside the control of the airline and its staff—for instance, if a missile strikes the plane, like it did with Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down over Ukraine last year. But such cases are extremely rare. Typically, the laws enshrined in the Montreal Convention, the international treaty that governs compensation for the victims of an air disaster, places the responsibility for an accident with the airline. That tends to encourage airlines to settle such claims out of court. But because most of the claims in the case of the Germanwings plane would fall under the jurisdiction of German courts, the compensation available to the families would “not be very generous,” Urwantschky said. Unless a family can prove that it lost its breadwinner in the disaster, a claim for moral damages in Germany could be expected to bring about $20,000 to $40,000, far less than a similar claim in the United States, he said. Speaking at a [news briefing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma-iZUQRX3c "undefined") on Thursday in Frankfurt, the chief executives of Germanwings and its parent company, Lufthansa, declined to discuss issues of liability payments at this stage in the investigation. _Read next:_ [_Germanwings Plane Crash: We Could Be Doing Much More To Prevent Pilot Suicide_](http://time.com/3760381/germanwings-cockpit-security-pilot-suicide/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3760210/germanwings-plane-crash-andreas-lubitz-liability/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3760210/germanwings-plane-crash-andreas-lubitz-liability/"},"headline":"Germanwings Faces Legal Fallout from Plane Crash","datePublished":"2015-03-26T20:32:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:51.092Z","description":"And an expert tells TIME that new revelations could make matters worse for the airline","url":"https://time.com/3760210/germanwings-plane-crash-andreas-lubitz-liability/","keywords":["Aviation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebdd21a1db1a21b0/6987858235ba6f4726c07c38/467580712.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Simon Shuster / Berlin"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebdd21a1db1a21b0/6987858235ba6f4726c07c38/467580712.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A memorial of flowers and candles can be seen in front of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium secondary school in Haltern am See, western Germany on March 26, 2015.","caption":"A memorial of flowers and candles can be seen in front of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium secondary school in Haltern am See, western Germany on March 26, 2015.","creditText":"Sascha Schuermann–AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/aviation/","name":"Aviation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3760210/germanwings-plane-crash-andreas-lubitz-liability/","name":"Germanwings Faces Legal Fallout from Plane Crash"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Year in Space: The Mission","description":"On March 28, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly begins a historic year in Space. 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