Along with the $28,000 per passenger for pain and suffering, Lufthansa is also offering $11,000 more for emotional damages to each immediate family member, such as parents and children, but not siblings. In several interviews, families in Haltern explained why the offer seems emblematic of what they see as Lufthansa’s effort to make the matter go away quickly, without fully explaining how a suicidal pilot came to be alone at the controls over the French Alps on the morning they were preparing to welcome the group home.

“I feel they are not taking the responsibility, not acknowledging that one of their own employees knowingly did this,” said Oliver, whose wife, Sonja Cercek, 35, a Spanish teacher at the Joseph-König Gymnasium, had organized the exchange with the Llinars del Vallès school near Barcelona. (He asked that his last name, which is different from that of his wife, not be published for privacy reasons.)

Image Steffen Strang, a 16-year-old student at Joseph-König Gymnasium in Haltern am See, had flown to Barcelona with his Spanish class. Credit... Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times

Lufthansa and Germanwings have acknowledged that Mr. Lubitz had a bout of severe depression in 2009 while training to be a pilot. But they have revealed little about their subsequent oversight of him and whether anyone in authority knew of the risk he potentially posed to passengers.

The airlines say they are fully cooperating with the investigations of Mr. Lubitz by German prosecutors. Under German law, only individuals can be prosecuted, not companies, limiting the scope of public prosecutors’ inquiries.

Heinz-Joachim Schöttes, a spokesman for Germanwings, said the payments for the victims’ pain and suffering “is just a part” of the compensation offer. Additional commitments include a trust fund valued at up to 15 million euros, or $16.9 million, for educational costs for children left orphaned and any other projects proposed by family members.

Nevertheless, the families of the Haltern victims and those of more than 50 other victims are meeting on Saturday to discuss filing a lawsuit in the United States, where Mr. Lubitz was training when he was granted a leave to recover from depression. Elmar Giemulla, a German lawyer representing many families here, said he believed that in addition to additional compensation allowed under United States tort laws, a suit could help uncover more information about the extent of Lufthansa’s knowledge of Mr. Lubitz’s condition and how he could have been considered flight-worthy.