Update: Confirmed, French Alps plane crash deliberate

FRENCH Police have said that the second black box from the ill-fated Germanwings flight has been found in a ravine.

Although it is was damaged, investigators say it still offered the information needed to confirm the plane was deliberately flown into a mountainside.

The second black box, (flight data recorder), contained readings from hundreds of parameters of the Airbus A320, including pilot commands.

The French BEA crash investigators said in a statement that the pilot changed the settings to increase the plane’s speed.

“A first reading shows that the pilot in the cockpit used the automatic pilot to descend the plane towards an altitude of 100 feet (30 metres). Then, several times during the descent, the pilot changed the automatic pilot settings to increase the aircraft’s speed,”

It has also been announced by the Marseilles Prosecutor Brice Robin, that the search teams have secured 150 sets of DNA from the crash site – one for every one of the crash victims.

This news came at the same time as German authorities said Lubitz had “looked for information on ways to commit suicide” in computer searches that took place between March 16 and 23, one day before the crash, and that: “On at least one day, the person had for several minutes undertaken searches related to cockpit doors and their safety precautions.”

French Prosecutor Brice Robin is expected to make a press statement shortly.