French investigators say data from the second “black box” recorder recovered after the Germanwings plane crash suggests the co-pilot increased the aircraft’s speed as it descended.
The information confirms earlier findings that last week’s downing of the Airbus into an Alpine mountainside was a deliberate act.
The Bureau d’enquêtes et d’analyses (BEA) investigation agency said in a statement that an initial reading of the data indicated the plane was programmed to go down to an altitude of 100 feet.
Several times, the investigators say, the pilot then modified the automatic pilot’s settings to make the aircraft go faster.
The flight data recorder contains a detailed readout of hundreds of parameters, including any commands made from the co-pilot’s seat on the flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
The box was discovered on Thursday by a female rescue officer, in an area of the mountain that had been repeatedly searched.
“I’d found a pile of clothes, we rummaged through a bit,
