Co-pilot ‘accelerated descent’

Investigators find evidence that Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz researched suicide methods and cockpit door technology in the days before Flight 9525's crash. Criminal justice professor Adam Lankford explains why some suicides end in murder. Photo: AP

Co-pilot ... Andreas Lubitz is suspected of deliberately downing the Germanwings plane, killing all 150 aboard. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

DATA from the second black box found in the wreckage of the Germanwings flight that crashed last week in the French Alps confirm the co-pilot acted deliberately, investigators say.

"A first reading shows that the pilot in the cockpit used the automatic pilot to descend the plane towards an altitude of 100 feet (30 metres)," said the French BEA crash investigation office in a statement on Friday.

"Then, several times during the descent, the pilot changed the automatic pilot settings to increase the aircraft's speed," added the investigators.

Evidence ... data from the second Germanwings black box (pictured) found the co-pilot accelerated the plane's descent. Picture: AFP/Boris Horvat Source: AFP

The latest information appeared to confirm the theory that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately smashed his plane into the mountains, killing all 150 people on board.

Authorities found the second black box, which contains technical flight data, on Thursday after a gruelling nine-day search in difficult mountain terrain.

Tough mission ... rescue workers continue their search operation near the site of the Germanwings plane crash near the French Alps. Picture: Francis Pellier MI DICOM/Ministere de l'Interieur/Getty Images Source: Getty Images

Data from the first black box, which records conversations in the cockpit, suggested that Lubitz, 27, locked his captain out and then deliberately set the plane on a deadly collision course with the mountains.

The plane smashed into the mountains at a speed of 700 kilometres an hour, instantly killing everyone on board — half of them German and more than 50 from Spain.

Search team ... French gendarmes get ready to go to the crash site of the German Airbus A320. Picture: AFP/pascal Guyot Source: AFP

It emerged on Thursday that Lubitz had searched online for information about suicide and cockpit doors.

German prosecutors have said Lubitz was diagnosed as suicidal "several years ago", before he became a pilot.

Woman tells of finding black box

After ten grim days for the Germanwings search team, Alice Coldefy — the only woman working at the crash site — found the elusive black box on her first day on the job.

"Everyone was happy. It was a relief ... a relief for all the people that had been working there for a week-and-a-half without a break," the 32-year-old said.

Ms Coldefy is the only woman in the 43-strong team of elite mountain police (PGHM) charged with recovering the body parts from the plane wreckage.

Beginner's luck ... Alice Coldefy found the second black box of the Germanwings plane after others had conducted a nine-day search. Picture: AFP/Pascal Guyot Source: AFP

On Thursday, she was for the first time assigned to work on the crash site, scouring for clothes and personal effects with another officer.

"I was really concentrating on personal effects. We were trying to get into areas that hadn't yet been searched to find as many clothes as we could," she told AFP.

"And it was while I was looking for clothes that I found it," she said.

Blackened from the fireball and shaped a bit like an oversized shoebox, it was especially difficult to spot as it was the same colour as the surrounding rock.

Dust and ropes ... Ms Coldefy has described the near-impossible working conditions for rescuers scrabbling into the mountain scree for debris and clues. Picture: AFP/ Pascal Guyot Source: AFP

"We had a photo of the black box from various angles. We got it out, compared it to what we had found and it was indeed that," she said.

Ms Coldefy described the near-impossible working conditions for rescuers scrabbling into the mountain scree for debris and clues.

"Physically, the hardest thing was all the dust that we kick up. We're working with masks on but even then it's hard to breathe. We need to use ropes in the steepest areas," she said.

The black box with its hundreds of potentially vital clues was at the "end of a very steep ravine" under a pile of debris.

The precious find was rushed to Paris immediately where experts were able to analyse the flight data.

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