The co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing an airliner in the French Alps searched online for information about suicide and cockpit doors, prosecutors said today as it emerged the second black box had been found.
Authorities are hoping to unearth more clues about the disaster from the black box, which French prosecutors said was found after a nine-day search of the wreckage of the Germanwings plane.
The first voice recorder suggested that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 27, locked the pilot out of the cabin and sent the plane into a steep descent into the mountains.
The discovery came as German prosecutors revealed details of the browser history of a tablet computer found in his Duesseldorf flat.
It indicated the user had been researching "medical methods of treatment", "ways to commit suicide" as well as "cockpit doors and their security provisions", the prosecutor's office in the western city said.
German prosecutors have said Lubitz was diagnosed as suicidal "several years ago", before he became a pilot.
The second black box records technical flight data that could provide vital insights into the final moments of Flight 4U9525 before it crashed on Tuesday of last week, killing all 150 people on board.
The first black box, found the same day as the crash, recorded conversations between Lubitz and the pilot and showed that the German co-pilot was alone at the time of the crash.
Lubitz apparently took advantage of the captain's brief absence to lock him out and send the plane on its deadly descent.
The plane smashed into the mountains at a speed of 700 kilometres (430 miles) an hour, instantly killing everyone on board -- half of them German and more than 50 from Spain.
According to prosecutors, the voice recorder suggested that the passengers were unaware of what was going to happen to them until the very last seconds, when screams were heard.
Rescue workers have since been sifting through the wreckage for days trying to identify body parts and victims via their DNA.
The search for evidence has been hampered by the extremely difficult mountain terrain as well as the force of the crash.
