Germanwings £70k Compensation Offer 'Divisive'

Lawyers representing the families of those killed in the Germanwings air crash have described compensation offers as low as £70,000 per person as "divisive and unfair".

London-based Stewarts Law is assisting relatives of passengers killed when the flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf came down in the French Alps in March.

James Healy-Pratt, from the firm's international team, revealed a formal offer of final compensation made to families valued lives in many cases at less than €100,000 (£70,880).

He is now working in conjunction with law firms in the US, Spain and Germany, and condemned the offer as being "woefully short of any meaning" to the families.

"Instead, it creates real and substantial differences in compensation between families based on nationality and domicile," he said.

"This is simply divisive and unfair. All families are expected to reject this offer."

Mr Healy-Pratt claimed the offer highlighted the unfair treatment of victims of aviation disasters, saying it could prompt legal action in the American courts.

Investigators have found evidence suggesting co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane after locking the pilot out of the cockpit.

Mr Healy-Pratt added: "It is now expected that the families will seek fair and equal treatment outside Germany, potentially in the US courts, given Andreas Lubitz's training and supervision at a flight school in Arizona."

Paul Bramley, 28, originally from Hull, was one of three Britons who died in the tragedy on March 24.

The others were Martyn Matthews, 50, from Wolverhampton, and seven-month-old Julian Pracz-Bandres, from Manchester, who died alongside his mother, Spanish-born Marina Bandres Lopez-Belio, 37.