As an exchange student from Germany myself, the message hit me like a lightning strike. It is always a strange feeling if you know that people you might know have died, especially under conditions like this. It gets even worse if you know that some of them were in the same position as you, being an exchange student. The thing that hit me personally the hardest was the fact that the airport they wanted to land at, Duesseldorf, was the airport I started my journey around seven months ago. Also, the school the exchange students came from in Germany, located in Haltern, is pretty close to my hometown.
I also got the message that somebody died in the crash that one of my families members had a connection too. I will not go into that further.

Most of us have been in the situation. You are sitting in a plane coming home or going on a vacation. In those moments, nobody is imagining that the vehicle they are on will have an accident, or worse, that they might lose their life. Given that the rates of fatalities caused by plane crashes are really low, if you look at the amount of flights around the world everyday.

However, last week people all around the world had to see that those accidents can always happen. A plane of the German company “Germanwings” crashed into the France Alpines during a flight from Barcelona in Spain to the German city of Duesseldorf. On board the plane were 144 passengers and 6 crew members. All of them died in the crash, a tragedy that reached the whole world within a few hours. All nations around the world displayed their sympathy for the people who died in the accident. Among the dead are 72 Germans, including 16 exchange students and two teachers who were on their way back from Spain. The German government put all flags at half staff and the national soccer team also displayed their misery when they played against Australia on Wednesday the 25th.

People helping to clean up the scene found the plane’s black box, a device that records technical data and voices, the day after the crash. After a while they found out what the voice recordings meant. Apparently the co-pilot locked himself in the cockpit and flew the plane into the mountain. On purpose. This is not completely confirmed at this point, but it looks like the co-pilot was plotting to commit suicide together with the people on the plane. The question the world, especially Germany, is asking now is why did so many people have to die, just because one person wanted to end his life? Further investigation will be made, but for the families of the victims this will not matter. They lost the people they were closest to. Forever.

Right now I have a strange feeling, which is hard to describe. I feel sorry since those people who died were around my age, and they were doing a similar exchange I am doing right now. Their lives are over. I mean, of course you have to know the fact that your life can be over at any point, but when it comes to the moment a life ends, how do you react? People from home sent me messages asking if I heard the news. I said yes. They asked about my feelings and cared for me.

But not only people from home were doing their best to cheer me up. Teachers in school frequently asked how I felt. They know that I am an exchange student and that the message hit me hard. My friends here also do their best to distract me from this horrible event.

Still, I try my best not to focus too hard on the crash. Of course, I feel connected to my people at home; I wish them the best, as well as all families who lost people who were close. But life goes on and I think one must accept that.

I hope that there will be consequences in regard to flight safety. It should not be possible for a single person in the position of a pilot to kill so many people so easily.The passengers of the plane were trusting the pilot and he just decided to erase their image from the world.

Steps need to be taken to prevent that such a horrible event from happening again. Ever.