The Germanwings co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and slammed the plane "deliberately" into the French Alps, killing all 150 onboard, the French prosecutor said.
Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin that 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz appeared to "show a desire to want to destroy" the plane, reported Daily Telegraph.
While revealing that information gathered from the "black box" recorder, Robin said that the co-pilot was alone at the control during the last few minutes leading to the crash and refused to let the pilot in. He deliberately began the descent of the plane by turning on the "flight monitoring system" button and did not speak a word in the last 10 minutes before the plane crash, Robin said.
He noted, "The intention was to destroy the plane. Death was instant." The screams of the passengers could only be heard in the last few minutes of the audio, indicating that they had no idea of their imminent demise "until very last moment," the prosecutor said.
Lubitz, identified as a German citizen, was not known to have any links to terrorism or extremists, Robin said.
No other details were released by local authorities.
Robin said that so far, it was unclear why the pilot left the cockpit or why he couldn't get back in but the recording showed that he tried to smash the door of the cockpit as the aircraft plunged from a height of 38,000 feet to about 6,000 feet within 10 minutes.
Authorities are likely to treat the crash as a mass murder investigation.
Lufthansa chief executive, Carsten Spohr, the parent company of Germanwings, said during a press conference following Robin's statement that he was "stunned" by suggestions that Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane.
