Earlier today, a Memorial Service was held in Cologne to honor those lost in the Germanwings tragedy from a few weeks ago.
If you would like to watch the Memorial in German, even for a few minutes, you can find the full memorial by using this link. Please note that the Memorial starts at the ’15 minute mark’ of the video.
To watch the service with an English translation, please use this link.
A memorial service will take place on April 17 at the Cologne Catherdral where thousands are expected to attend to honor the victims from the Germanwings tragedy.
The memorial, hosted by the German government and the state of North Rhein-Westphalia, will begin at 11:30a local time. Though the Cathedral will only be open to families of the victims, State guests (including Germany’s Chancellor Merkel, France’s Hollande and Spain’s King Philip) and senior Lufthansa leadership, accommodations have been made to allow thousands more to participate near the Cathedral. Large Screen Monitors have been set up in the vicinity of the Cathedral that can facilitate upwards of 5000 people to watch the memorial taking place inside.
Cologne Cathedral
For Lufthansa employees, the memorial will be broadcast throughout the company via their in-house network and intranet. Additionally, employees in the Frankfurt area can go to the cavernous A380 hangar where thousands of colleagues are expected to gather to watch the memorial’s simulcast. Over a thousand Germanwings employees in Cologne will be able to watch the event from the Gurzenich, a concert hall near the Germanwings headquarters.
Other employees throughout the LH network will have access to simulcasts in employee lounges and other employee ‘common areas’.
Notably and rightfully so, very little media is being admitted to the memorial. Only journalists and photographers with accreditation from the Bishop’s Conference will be allowed inside the Cathedral and only German television station ‘WDR’ will be allowed to broadcast the memorial.
Media is also being restricted at the large LH employee gathering expected at the A380 hangar in FRA. Only Lufthansa’s own photographers will be allowed to be inside during the broadcast of the memorial. This is being done to prevent the exploitation of the somber event and to allow airline employees to grieve privately as an organization.
Germanwings flight 826, service between Cologne and Milan, was forced to be evacuated after the airline received a bomb threat via an e-mail.
The plane had already departed its gate at Cologne and was proceeding to the runway when the threat came to the attention of the airline. The airline was parked in a remote location of the airport where 126 passengers were forced to evacuate.
Predictably, German Federal Police and their sniffer dogs were unable to find any explosives and passengers were put on another aircraft for their flight to Milan.
