Investigations of the Germanwings Flight 9525 that crashed into the French Alps Tuesday have taken on a grimmer tone as it was found that the co-pilot of the aircraft, Andreas Lubitz, had deliberately caused its rapid descent that ended in tragedy and the death of all 150 passengers.
Initially, experts thought that the crash was caused by problems in the 24-year-old Airbus 320's machinery, especially after it was learned that it had been previously grounded less than a year before the crash "for urgent refurbishments," MailOnline noted.
However, the recovery of the first of two black boxes confirmed suspicions of a pilot-initiated plane descent.
"The plane's cockpit audio recorder captured horrific sounds. The captain, somehow locked out of the cockpit, can be heard banging on the door," CNN reported. "And screaming can be heard on the audio recording for the final few minutes of the flight."
"Death was instantaneous for those on board when the plane plunged into the mountains," the news source added. "Transponder data shows that the autopilot was reprogrammed during the flight by someone inside the cockpit to change the plane's altitude from 38,000 feet to 100 feet."
In the wake of these revelations, the investigation has turned into a "full-blown criminal inquiry," MailOnline said.
Those involved in the investigations are puzzled about co-pilot Lubitz's behavior. Although it is not yet known whether the 27-year-old co-pilot had planned the entire event, he apparently "took advantage" of the pilot's momentary absence from the cockpit and locked the captain, Patrick Sonderheimer, out.
"He had... no reason to stop the pilot-in-command from coming back into the cockpit. He had no reason to refuse to answer to the air controller who was alerting him on the loss of altitude," said Brice Robin, Marseille prosecutor, according to Reuters.
Robin also clarified that what happened was not a "suicide" event. Further, authorities said that there was no evidence that Lubitz was a terrorist or had ties to similar groups. His religion is unknown.
In the wake of this revelation, police have conducted a search at the Lubitz home, which the young German shared with his parents, in Montabaur, Germany. They have also searched his Dusseldorf address for clues to the tragic crash.
'We wanted to search to see if we could find something that would explain what happened," Dusselforf Police's Markus Niesczery told MailOnline. "'We have found something which will now be taken for tests. We cannot say what it is at the moment but it may be very significant clue to what has happened."
"We hope it may give some explanations," he added.
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