Dagmar Strang, whose son Steffen perished six months ago after Germanwings co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, sent his aircraft into a fatal descent before ultimately hitting a mountain, recalls a conversation she had with her child in the lead-up to a student exchange programme.
Upon realising that a student trip to Barcelona was going to clash with a football game due to be played by his favourite team, Steffan suggested he forego the trip in order to attend the match,
"I told him he wasn’t going to stay home because of a stupid game - I called it that, ‘stupid," recalls Dagmar with heartbreaking clarity.
Opening up about the conversation which took place between herself and Steffan, loving mum Dagmar encouraged her son to see the importance of the exchange programme.
Helping him to compare the advantages of the school trip to Spain against that of a football match, Steffen's mum recalls: "I told him this could be a chance to make a lifelong friend, to go out and experience the world."
Haunted by the conversation which took place, Dagmar struggles to come to terms with the implications of her well-intentioned advice.
Recalling the last communication she received from her son prior to his tragic and untimely death, Dagmar reveals Steffen contacted her before taking off from Spain on Flight 9525 - a plane bound for Dússeldorf in Germany.
"We are sitting on the plane. I can’t wait to see you," she recalls, remembering the much-loved child she feared she would never conceive with her husband.
Sharing memories of Steffen, Dagmar paid tribute to her son and acknowledged that he was a family-oriented teen, saying: "He was like that, always saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ and still wanting to spend time with us, joining us for breakfast on the weekend."
Devastated by her son's terrifying final moments on this earth, Dagmar struggled to keep her composure as she contemplated her son's horror, saying: "They owe us an explanation of how they allowed a sick monster to sit in the cockpit."
Our hearts go out to the family and friends of each and every victim of the Germanwings crash.
