Data from the second ‘black box’ flight recorder belonging to the Germanwings plane that crashed in the Alps suggests that the co-pilot deliberately accelerated its descent, French investigators say.
They say Andreas Lubitz modified the automatic pilot system several times to increase the speed of descent.
The information they recovered also confirms earlier findings that Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane.
All 150 people on board died.
The plane had been flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf on 24 March.
The second flight recorder, recovered on Thursday, showed that “the pilot in the cockpit used the automatic pilot to put the airplane on a descent towards an altitude of 100ft (30m)”, the French BEA crash investigation agency said in a statement.
“Then several times the pilot modified the automatic pilot settings to increase the speed of the airplane as it descended,” it added.
Earlier findings from the cockpit voice recorder suggested Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit.
On Thursday, German prosecutors said the co-pilot had researched suicide methods and the security of cockpit doors on the internet the week before the crash.
Germanwings also said it was unaware that Lubitz, 27, had experienced depression while he was training to be a pilot. BBC
