First Germanwings victims' remains repatriated to Germany

The first bodies of victims of the Gemanwings plane that was deliberately crashed in the French Alps were returned to Germany on Tuesday night. A Lufthansa cargo plane carrying the bodies of 44 Germans touched down at Duesseldorf at 10.30pm local time.

The Lufthansa cargo aircraft carrying victims of the Germanwings flight 4U 9525 lands in Duesseldorf Reuters/Ina Fassbender

The Lufthansa MD-11 cargo plane took off from the southern French city of Marseille's Marignane airport at 9.30pm, taking the remains of 44 of the 72 Germans who were on board the Airbus A320 when it crashed in the Alps on 24 March.

All 150 people on board were killed when copilot Abdreas Lubitz apparently deliberately flew the plane into a mountainside.

French prosecutor Brice Robin, who is in charge of the investigation, is to meet relatives of some of the other victims on Thursday to discuss identification and repatriation of remains.

Last week the families of the 16 teenagers from a school in the German town of Haltern am See protested to Lufthansa after being told that repatriation would be delayed.

The funerals had been planned to start on 12 June, they said in a letter.

The mayor of Prads-Haute-Bléone, the French town where they were being kept, said that there was no obstacle to repatriation, although there had been some confusion due to the misspelling of some "foreign names".

"After this first special flight to Duesseldorf, the other victims will be gradually transferred to their home countries in the coming weeks," Lufthansa said.

"The French authorities are working hard in order to create the formal conditions for the transfer of the victims as soon as possible. Lufthansa is in close contact with the relatives to ensure that the transfer of the victims is carried out according to the relatives' wishes."