Germanwings crash: co-pilot accelerated to descent

World Today

In this photo provided Friday, April 3, 2015 by the French Interior Ministry, French emergency rescue services work among debris of the Germanwings passenger jet at the crash site near Seyne-les-Alpes, France. The co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight repeatedly sped up the plane as he used the automatic pilot to descend the A320 into the Alps, the French air accident investigation agency said Friday. (AP Photo/Yves Malenfer, Ministere de l'Interieur)In this photo provided Friday, April 3, 2015 by the French Interior Ministry, French emergency rescue services work among debris of the Germanwings passenger jet at the crash site near Seyne-les-Alpes, France. The co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight repeatedly sped up the plane as he used the automatic pilot to descend the A320 into the Alps, the French air accident investigation agency said Friday. (AP Photo/Yves Malenfer, Ministere de l’Interieur)

The co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight repeatedly speeded up the plane as he used the automatic pilot to descend the A320 into the Alps, the French air accident investigation agency said on Friday.

The chilling new detail from the BEA agency was based on an initial reading of the plane’s “black box” data recorder, found blackened and buried at the crash site on Thursday.

MORE COVERAGE OF GERMANWINGS FLIGHT

The reading strengthened investigators’ initial suspicions that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally destroyed the plane – though prosecutors are still trying to find out why.

All 150 people aboard Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf were killed in the March 24 crash.

Report filed by The Associated Press