‘I need to see the crash site’

Grief stricken ... Carol Friday's brother and nieces make the emotional journey to the crash site. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

Recovery teams in the French Alps have reportedly found the DNA of plane crash co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.

THEY suspect it may have been a murder but for the family of two Australian victims of Germanwings Flight 9525, it's a word that for now is hard to form as they come to terms with the enormity of their loss and grief.

Carol Friday's brother Malcolm Coram and his daughters Georgie and Pippa yesterday drove into the Alps and bade an emotional farewell at a site in the shadow of the mountain that claimed the lives of their loved ones.

"I had a need to come here I really did, I probably didn't think I really would but when you are faced with that disaster in your family … I dearly would love to visit it but this is the closest I can get, " an emotional Malcolm said yesterday after he lay a wreath at a granite memorial erected in the village of Le Vernet, the closest point the families of the victims can get to the hazardous site.

They hugged, cried and comforted each other and brought private messages and poems from family back home as well as a painting Carol had produced.

Tragic ... Carol had flown to Spain to celebrate her 68th birthday. Source: Supplied

With a backdrop of an Australian flag flapping in the Alpine breeze held high by the gendarmes, he uttered "I love you forever" over and over to his sister and nephew. Malcolm said Carole's husband Dave was too grief stricken to make the journey having lost half his family but they felt stricken too for the family of the co-pilot Andrea Lubitz who stands accused of the intentional murder of the 149 people on that flight.

Ambitious ... Greig had planned to stay in Europe to become an English teacher. Source: Supplied

"It's just a shock losing your family in one go, Dave lost half his family in one second, you feel sorry for the parents of the pilot. Wow how would you feel if your child did that?"

Malcolm said there was not yet conclusive proof as to the cause of the crash and he wants it that way for the moment as it "helps us".

"Just the enormity of it right now with the added emotion was too much for us at this stage," Georgie said.

"Maybe down the track we will be able to process the anger that comes up thinking that someone did this on purpose and then it's essentially murder but that is too much for our family at this stage."

Malcolm described his sister as the linchpin of the family and her son had inherited her traits as a compassionate loving person.

'Mass murderer' ... the co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U9525 Andreas Lubitz takes part in the Airport Hamburg 10-mile run on September 13, 2009. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

He revealed his brothers back in Australia were still in denial.

"I now know the true meaning of the words grief stricken," he said.

It has been a long drawn journey, not just physically for the family flying from their home in Victoria via Germany, but also an emotional one that no one should go through. Bad enough to lose a loved one, made worse still with the knowledge they were innocents and it was at the hand of a troubled stranger.

Georgie said to know it as a mass murder as prosecutors in France and Germany now believe, has made the trip all the more difficult to bear.

Recovery ... rescue workers and gendarmerie continue their search operation near the site of the Germanwings plane crash. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images

Carol, who had worked as a nurse for 40 years, had celebrated her 68th birthday in Spain with her mechanical engineer son Greig who had been hoping to then stay on in Europe to become a teacher of English.

Malcolm read a message from Greig's partner at the site too.

Not even the overnight heavy rain could wash away the indelible stain co-pilot Andrea Lubitz's action, accused of crashing the aircraft killing all 150 on-board, has left on the families or the local community many of whom come out each day to share, at a distance, the misery of the families who have been coming to the site for the past week.

A mixed unit of Red Cross members from France, Spain and Germany were at the Le Vernet site to assist in the humanitarian support of relatives of the victims and village locals traumatised by what's happened.

Loss ... The victim's family read letters from friends and family back in Australia at the crash site. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

"I think it is important particularly in these difficult moments, I think we just have to be together with the relatives and families, to kind of enhance the social network is very important for them," said Carlos Urkia, dispatched to the scene by Spain's Red Cross.

"Again in the same sense it is important for them to realise what really happened and where and this is why authorities have organised this visit to the site, just to see that behind this mountain their relatives are there, the accident was there so they can take a little bit of comfort the crash was near to be conscious of that and it helps to cope with the situation."

ends

Support team ... Carlos Urkia from Red Cross. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: News Corp Australia

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

‘I need to see the crash site’

Dengan url

http://pesbukeronline.blogspot.com/2015/03/ai-need-to-see-crash-sitea.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

‘I need to see the crash site’

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

‘I need to see the crash site’

sebagai sumbernya