Second Germanwings black box found

After the first voice recorder suggested that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately locked the plane on a collision course with the mountains, the second black could provide more information about the Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps last week, French prosecutor Brice Robin told reporters in Marseille on Thursday.

The voice recorder with the conversations between Lubitz and the pilot had been found shortly after the crash on March 24. German co-pilot took the advantage of the captain's absence to lock him out and set the plane on a deadly descent into the Alps.

The Marseille prosecutor in charge of the case, declined to give any further comment, but said he was planning a press conference for later on Thursday.

The Flight data in the second black box contain readings from hundreds of parameters of the Airbus aircraft including any pilot commands.

French search teams were also examining cell phones found in the debris of the plane crash for more clues about the tragedy. However, no video or audio from such devices has been released publicly.

The Germanwings flight 4U9525 from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed into the mountains at a speed of 700 kilometres (430 miles) an hour, killing all 150 people on board.

Co-pilot studied suicide methods on internet

Meanwhile, German state prosecutors said a computer seized from 27-year-old co-pilot's home showed searches had been made on cockpit doors and their safety precautions as well as suicide methods.

"On at least one day, the person also spent several minutes trying out search terms for cockpit doors and their security protection," German prosecutor Ralf Herrenbrueck said.

"The browser history wasn't erased, in particular the search terms called up on this device in the period from March 16 to March 23 were able to be retraced," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Lubitz's tablet computer was found in a search of his flat in Düsseldorf.

German prosecutors have said Lubitz was diagnosed as suicidal "several years ago," before he became a pilot. He informed Lufthansa about his illness in 2009 after interrupting his flight training.

Two days after the crash, Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said Lubitz had passed all medical and psychological tests to obtain a student pilot certificate including the one from the US Federal Aviation Authority in 2010.

jil/rc (dpa, AFP)