Germanwings crash investigators finish identifying bodies

Remains of 150 passengers on board fatal Airbus A320 to be returned to families

File handout of debris found during recovery operations following a Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps. The remains of all 150 passengers on board the   Airbus A320 are to be turned over to their families for burial. File photograph: Sebastien Nogier/EPA
File handout of debris found during recovery operations following a Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps. The remains of all 150 passengers on board the Airbus A320 are to be turned over to their families for burial. File photograph: Sebastien Nogier/EPA

The remains of all 150 victims of the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps will finally be turned over to their families for burial, as investigators say they have completed their identification process.

The Marseilles prosecutor said that death certificates for everyone aboard the Airbus A320 jet have been signed and turned over to officials at German airline Lufthansa, parent company of the airline whose co-pilot intentionally crashed the aircraft into a mountain.

Authorities have yet to determine why Andreas Lubitz, who had suffered from suicidal tendencies and depression in the past, locked the captain out of the plane's cockpit on March 24th and sent the Airbus hurtling into a mountain, killing all 150 people on board.

PA