Seyne-Les-Alpes, France – A delegation of eight ZAKA International Rescue Unit volunteers flew in the early hours of Monday morning to assist in the search and recovery mission at the site of the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps.
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ZAKA volunteers will offer their extensive experience and expertise in international search and recovery missions to the local search teams.
The team was led by ZAKA International Rescue Unit head Mati Goldstein and ZAKA International Rescue Unit Chief of Operations Chaim Weingarten.
In particular, the ZAKA volunteers worked to recover, identify and bring the remains of Israeli Eyal Baum to a full Jewish burial in Israel. Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, agreed to the request of the Baum family to bring a ZAKA delegation from Israel to assist in the recovery operation.
ZAKA volunteers have been on standby to fly out to the crash scene since offering their assistance last week.
At the request of the family of Israeli victim, Eyal Baum, Lufthansa paid for a team of ZAKA volunteers from Israel to help in the search and recovery efforts at the site.
The Israeli ZAKA team members along with volunteers from ZAKA France, were helicoptered into the crash site, where they immediately set up a ZAKA command center and began working, in cooperation with the local and international recovery teams.
ZAKA is a group of volunteer emergency response teams in Israel. The organizations are officially recognized by the government.
The Germanwings flight crashed March 24, killing all 150 people on board. It is alleged that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, crashed intentionally.
It is a wonderful mitzvah that they are doing. At the same time, it is so sad that an organization that has so much experience in recovering remains even has to exist. It speaks very poorly for humanity.
Two questions: How are they volunteers if Lufthansa is paying them?
And would they go if there were no Israelis on the plane?