Lufthansa Cancels Plans For Airline's 60th Anniversary Celebration In Wake of Germanwings Tragedy

German airline Lufthansa announced Tuesday that it had canceled plans to mark a company milestone because of the recent crash of a jet from its Germanwings subsidiary. "Out of respect for the crash victims of Flight 4U9525, Lufthansa is canceling the festivities for the 60th anniversary of the company," the airline said in a statement.

Lufthansa had planned a jubilee anniversary event for April 15. Instead, it will broadcast for its employees live coverage of Germany's official state memorial service for the victims of Germanwings Flight 9525, which will be held at Cologne Cathedral on April 17.

All 150 people aboard the flight from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany, were killed when the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane into a mountain in the French Alps on March 24, investigators said. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr called the incident "the blackest day in the 60-year history of our company."

Lufthansa was founded in 1955, 10 years after the end of World War II and the dissolution of the original Lufthansa, which had been founded in 1926. Lufthansa, along with its subsidiaries, is the largest airline in Europe, in both number of passengers and fleet size. It employs more than 118,000 workers around the world, with 70,000 in Germany.