LE VERNET, France (AP) – Families of the 150 people who died in last year’s Germanwings plane crash, when the co-pilot flew the aircraft into an Alpine mountainside, are gathering in a village near the scene of the drama to mark its one year anniversary.
Thursday’s commemoration started with a private ceremony and a minute of silence. Families who wish may be driven to the crash site on the mountain overlooking Le Vernet. A wreath-laying was expected to be the only public moment as families of victims, mostly German and Spanish, grimly mark the day they lost their loved ones.
The flight was en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and began the descent. France’s accident investigating body says Lubitz’s remains bore traces of anti-depressants.