Analysis of a tablet device belonging to Germanwings Flight 9525 co-pilot shows he researched suicide methods on the Internet in the days leading up to the crash, a German prosecutor said Thursday (2nd April).
Dusseldorf prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said that on one day, 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz also “searched for several minutes with search terms relating to cockpit doors and their security measures“. Police analysis of the correspondence and search history on the device, retrieved from his Dusseldorf apartment, demonstrated that the co-pilot used it from 16th – 23rd March, Kumpa said.
The search history was not deleted and also revealed searches concerning medical treatment, the prosecutor said.
A European official government official with detailed knowledge of the investigation said that Andreas Lubitz’s actions amount to”premeditated murder“.
While cautioning that there are still many holes in understanding his motivation, the disclosures about his Internet searches show that he planned to do what he was going to do, according to this official.
Meanwhile, as authorities try to figure out what was on Andreas Lubitz’s electronic devices, they got another big break about what was happening inside Airbus 320 that went down – its flight data recorder.
Now, investigators have both “black boxes,” as the devices are called, and the details that they might provide.
A female police officer digging by hand for clothes in a ravine that had been searched previously found the flight data recorder about 8 inches (20 centimeters) below the surface.
Source: CNN / Featured image from The Times UK.
