The former chief pilot of Deutsche Lufthansa AG was not only an outstanding flight captain—he was a face of the industry. He was a voice that people trusted. He stood for safety, humanity, and professionalism above the clouds and on the ground.
He was considered one of the most influential pilots in recent aviation history: Now Jürgen Raps has unexpectedly passed away.
With Jürgen Raps, Lufthansa has lost one of its most influential pilots. The public knew the pilot from numerous media appearances and interviews. Even in his retirement, the dialogue with him never ceased, according to Lufthansa spokesman Michael Lamberty. He had logged “thousands of flying hours” in his career and shaped Lufthansa for decades with his extensive knowledge, experience, and commitment to training and management. His death leaves a noticeable and very painful gap in German aviation.
Jürgen Raps: Aviation was already a topic of interest in his childhood
Jürgen Raps discovered his love of flying at the age of five: after a sightseeing flight with his father in a single-engine propeller plane, he knew he wanted to be a pilot. At the age of 13, he joined the Bayreuth Air Sports Association and began learning to fly gliders.
Jürgen Raps, from Bayreuth, began his professional career in 1970 at the commercial pilot school in Bremen. Twenty years later, he took over as head of the school and helped numerous pilots launch their careers. In 1996, Raps was promoted to chief pilot and flight operations manager at Lufthansa. In 2007, he was one of the first pilots worldwide to receive a license to fly the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft.
Born in Bayreuth in 1951, he was Lufthansa’s chief pilot, passenger director, university lecturer, and shaped flying careers at the airline.
He was one of the first commercial pilots worldwide to receive the A380 license. On March 19, 2007, Raps flew the first Lufthansa A380 scheduled flight to the USA.
Another special flight in the pilot’s career: on August 10, 1989, Raps was assigned to the first German-German scheduled flight, Lufthansa 6010, flying from Frankfurt to Leipzig. The route took him via Prague – even in the spirit of détente between East and West, passenger flights were not allowed to fly over the inner-German border
In 2011, Jürgen Raps, known as “J.R.” among Lufthansa pilots, ended his career as a captain on a final A380 flight to San Francisco.
From 2012, the pilot passed on his expertise to the next generation of pilots as an honorary professor at Bremen University of Applied Sciences. Raps also promoted the use of renewable aviation fuels in commercial aviation through the aireg association.
Johanna Wenninger-Muhr
Sources: Lufthansa, aero.de