The second black box recorder from the crash site of the Germanwings jetliner revealed that the person flying the plane at the time of the crash changed the altitude settings for the automatic pilot to 100 feet and then sped up the plane multiple times, investigators said Friday. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS—Data freshly drawn from the second black box aboard Germanwings Flight 9525 show the plane was repeatedly accelerated as it descended into a mountainside, French aviation investigators said Friday, bolstering prosecutors’ suspicions that co-pilotAndreas Lubitz intentionally crashed the jetliner.
French investigation agency BEA said in a statement that the flight data recorder, which was found and recovered on Thursday, revealed that the person flying the plane at the time of the crash changed the altitude settings for the automatic pilot to 100 feet and then sped up the plane multiple times as it headed toward the ground, eventually hitting a slope in the French Alps at 400 miles an hour.
The BEA didn't declare that the person responsible for the crash was Mr. Lubitz, but French and German prosecutors have already assigned blame to the 27-year-old co-pilot, who suffered from depression.
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The flight data recorder can store 25 hours of technical data from a flight and is regarded as the most reliable indicator of any system malfunction. The first black box recovered from the crash site included a voice recording from the cockpit. French prosecutors who listened to it said it suggested Mr. Lubitzlocked out his captain and deliberately flew the plane into the mountain.
Investigators will likely be searching the flight data recorder for confirmation that Mr. Lubitz actively denied the captain access to the cockpit by flicking a switch to lock him out. The special doors, which were integrated onto planes after the 9/11 attacks to prevent terrorists from gaining control of a commercial airliner, are equipped with technology that allows those in the cockpit to shut out anybody trying to enter the flight deck.
German prosecutors said on Thursday that Mr. Lubitz researched cockpit security, medical treatments and suicide methods on his tablet computer in days leading to the crash.
On Friday the BEA revealed three photos that revealed the mangled metal case of the flight data recorder, but the main recorder appeared to be intact. The investigation is continuing, the BEA said.
