Germanwings Airbus A320 crashes in French Alps with 150 people on board: as it happened March 26

• Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot, was 'depressed' during pilot training
• He deliberately destroyed the plane, says French prosecutor
• Lubitz became first officer in 2013
• "We only hear screams in the last seconds," before the crash
• Pilot heard trying to smash his way back into cockpit
• Pilots were trained at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Bremen

Latest

00.45 Who was Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Airbus A320 plane that mysteriously crashed in the French Alps - in 60 seconds

00.24 Here is our story on

00.00 The Daily Star is reporting that Libutz had recently split from a partner, according to friends, although they have no further details on this.

22.42 Markus Niesczery from Dusseldorf Police told the Daily Mail: 'We wanted to search to see if we could find something that would explain what happened.

"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."

22.15 David Millward, our former transport editor, says the Germanwings disaster is likely to lead to fresh international rules to prevent a pilot destroying an aircraft.

Already a number of airlines have announced that they will require a minimum of two crew members in the cockpit at all times.

This could become binding following this week’s crash across the industry as a whole.

Many airlines in the US already have the two in a cockpit and and three other carriers - – Air Canada, Air Transat, low cost carrier and Norwegian Air Shuttle – announced they were following suit.

Within the next few weeks, the International Air Transport Association, the trade body for the world’s leading airlines will draw up recommendations for its members.

In the longer term binding rules will be drawn up by governments across the world, working through the International Civil Aviation Organisation – a United Nations body.

But this will have to wait until the French authorities have completed their investigation and drawn up new cockpit rules.

The last overhaul of cockpit rules took place in the aftermath of the September 11 attack on New York.

They required cockpit doors not only to be locked but also to be strong enough to even resist a pistol or a hand grenade.

21.52 Germany's Bild daily paper has this new picture of Lubitz:

21.38 Germany's aviation association has just said it wants to introduce a rule to ensure two people are in aircraft cockpits at all times

21.33 French authorities have released the first on-the-ground video of the recovery effort underway in the Alps.

21.20 We reported earlier that German police were searching the home of the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, for anything that might help explain why he would have deliberately crashed the plane.

There are now reports that police recovered something of significance in the flat on the outskirts of Dusseldorf that they are treating as a clue. They gave no indications as to what that might be, but we hope to have further updates soon.

20.38 Search and rescue teams in the Alps are still frantically searching for the second black box from the plane, which could shed light on what exactly happened inside the cockpit. The two black boxes from the Airbus A320 look something like this:

20.12 The FBI have announced that they are aiding in what is now a criminal investigation.

Here is the full Germanwings statement from earlier this evening:

We are horrified to discover today that the aircraft that crashed in the south of France appears to have been crashed deliberately – probably by the co-pilot of flight 4U9525. Based on audio taken from the voice recorder, the French authorities have come to the conclusion that after the aircraft had reached cruising altitude, the captain left the cockpit for a short time and was then unable to re-enter. It appears that the co-pilot, who had stayed in the cockpit, prevented the captain from re-entering by fully locking the cockpit door in order to then initiate the fatal descent. All Germanwings and Lufthansa employees are deeply shocked. We could never have imagined that a tragedy like this could occur within our company.

Yet even after this terrible event, we have full faith in our pilots. They remain the best in the world; this event is an extremely tragic isolated incident.

We share in the sadness, shock and incomprehension of the bereaved families and friends and that of millions of other people.

19.43 If the crash is ultimately determined to be a murder-suicide, it would only be the third such case in memory according to Robert Benzon, a former lead crash investigator for America's National Transportation Safety Board.

“To do that in an airliner is just pretty darn rare,” Mr Benzon told the Washington Post. “You could tweak a data base on suicide and you’d get a lot of little planes, but airliners, not much would pop up at all.”

The most recent instance was in 1999, when an EgyptAir flight out of New York plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off of Cape Cod.

Here's how the New York Times covered that crash.

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18.52 Some pilots are likely to hide from their employers that they are depressed because it could scupper their career, a pilot for a European airline, who asked not be named, told Rory Mulholland.

"Recurrent depression is not viewed with much sympathy by airlines," he said "I would say a lot of people in the world, including pilots, hide from their bosses that they are depressed."

He said that pilots are legally obliged to inform their employers if they are depressed and to seek psychiatric treatment. "Then they are no longer allowed to fly again until the symptoms disappear," he said.

But he said that flying a plane in a state of depression would be very difficult as it takes a high level of communication and technical skills that would likely be impaired.

18.47 Chris Meaden, Harley Street consultant who specialises in treating fear of flying and other anxieties, says the crash will make anxious flyers more fearful.

The revelation that the Germanwings co-pilot appeared to have deliberately caused the aircraft to crash will be yet another nightmare scenario for those who suffer a fear of flying to fret over.

It doesn’t reassure the anxious flyer that air travel is by far the safest form of transport, or that it is only the fifth time in airline history that "pilot action" has been identified as the cause of a crash. Fear of flying, or also referred to as ‘aviophobia’, is no respecter of reason or rationale.

Aviophobes generally perceive the pilots as one of the few elements of a journey by air that they can put their trust in. So anything that challenges the notion that pilots can also no longer be relied entirely will increase their sense of anxiety.

(A cockpit)

It is estimated that up to 40 per cent of people suffer from aviophobia in some form, with around one in ten getting it so severely that they abandon flights and do a journey by car, train or ferry, even if it takes three times as long, or just avoid overseas travel altogether.

Apart from the fear of crashing, which is the most common reason for aviophobia, sufferers often also fear being in an enclosed space (claustrophobia), a fear of heights (acrophobia) and a fear of not being in control, the latter speaking directly to the issue of absolute reliance on the pilot.

18.18 The autopilot on the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday was switched to descend to 100 feet, its lowest possible setting, before it began its fatal plunge, according to data from a specialist aviation tracking service, Reuters reported.

Online web tracking service FlightRadar24 said its analysis of satellite tracking data had found that someone had changed the altitude to the minimum setting possible of 100 feet: well below the crash site lying at about 6,000 feet.

"Between 09:30:52 and 09:30:55 you can see that the autopilot was manually changed from 38,000 feet to 100 feet and 9 seconds later the aircraft started to descend, probably with the 'open descent' autopilot setting," Fredrik Lindahl, chief executive of the Swedish tracking service said by email.

He said FlightRadar24 had shared its data with French crash investigators at their request.

17.51 The Telegraph's Education Editor, Javier Espinosa, has the full statement from easyJet about a change in their policies thant there will be two crew members in the cockpit at all times.

easyJet can confirm that, with effect from tomorrow Friday 27 March, it will change its procedure which will mean that two crew members will be in the cockpit at all times. This decision has been taken in consultation with the Civil Aviation Authority.

"The safety and security and of its passengers and crew is the airline's highest priority."

17.43 Sky News has just put the alert out that: "UK air operators are being told to review their safety procedures after a Germanwings flight crashed in the Alps."

17.41 Carsten Spohr, the CEO of Lufthansa, told CNN in an exclusive interview has admitted the safety nets they are "so proud of have not worked in this case".

Speaking to Fred Pleitgen, CNN international correspondent, Mr Spohr said: “The pilot has passed all his tests, all his medical exams. We have at Lufthansa, a reporting system where crew can report - without being punished - their own problems, or they can report about the problems of others without any kind of punishment.

"But that hasn’t been used either in this case. So all the safety nets we are all so proud of here have not worked in this case."

17.25 Local authorities in Dusseldorf now saying that the Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was 27, and not 28, the Suddeutsche Zeitung reports.

17.24 Robert Oliver is the name of the third US victim, the US State Department told the Telegraph's David Lawler in Washington.

17.18 The director of the German high school which lost 16 pupils in the Germanwings plane crash has reacted furiously to the news that the disaster was caused deliberately by the co-pilot, writes Rory Mulholland.

"It makes us furious, it makes us sad, it leaves us stunned," said Ulrich Wessel of the Jacob-Koenig-Gymnasiums in the small western town of Haltern. He told reporters that the prime minister of his region had phoned him this morning to inform him of the new twist in the grisly tale of the plane crash.

The school then in turn phoned the parents of the children lost in the crash to tell them the grim news. The teenagers had been returning from a a Spanish exchange programme when they met their deaths.

Unknown couple arrive at Germanwings disaster commemorative chapel, Le Vernet

17.09 Police in Dusseldorf are searching the apartment of the co-pilot who allegedly deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane into a mountain in France, German media report.

Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz lived with his parents in a small town in western Germany but also had an apartment in Dusseldorf, from where he flew planes for the low-cost airline, reports Rory Mulholland.

Police have also sealed off the building where the main pilot of the crashed plane lived in the same city, the Berliner Kuriernewspaper reported. The captain, named as Patrick Sonderheimer, was locked out of the cockpit as his co-pilot took the aircraft on its course to disaster.

16.45 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was shocked to learn that the Germanwings plane crash in the Alps had been deliberately caused by the co-pilot, writes Rory Mulholland.

"Something like this goes beyond the realms of the imaginable," Mrs Merkel said at a press conference in Berlin, a day after visiting the scene of the crash in the southern French Alps.

16.43 The German foreign ministry has updated the number of German nationals who died in the Germanwings crash. It says 75 Germans were killed. Previously the number given was 72.

16.32 Germanwings released a statement saying: “We are aware of the shocking statements of the French authorities, which reported the copilot of the aircraft crashed it purposely. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families and friends of the victims.

According to iTele, the co-pilot's parents are not in France, but remained in Germany to be questioned by investigators, writes Henry Samuel.

The channel said that relatives of five crew members, including the captain, are in Seyne-les-Alpes, but not those of Andreas Lubitz.

A model of a Germanwings plane is placed among flowers and lit candles in Cologne Bonn airport

16.28 Yesterday it was reported that a third US victim was killed in the crash. Today, a State Department spokesman has identified the victim to David Lawler in Washington.

But, given the sensitive circumstances and the family's wish not to name the victim, we have elected to wait for a formal announcement from the family before revealing the identity.

15.52 An image has come of Manchester-based Marina Bandres López-Belio with her son Julian Pracz-Bandres

15.47 The families here in Le Vernet are now paying their respects to loved ones in the funeral parlour adorned with flowers and with books for relatives to write tributes, writes Henry Samuel.

The relatives of the crew members, including it is believed both pilots, have reportedly been sent to Seyne-les-Alpes to attend a memorial ceremony, while the victims' families are in Le Vernet, reports Henry Samuel.

The aim is that the relatives of the passengers don't cross paths with the crew, according to iTele.

15.33 White House spokesman Josh Earnest, speaking to CNN, called reports of the co-pilot bringing the plane down intentionally "chilling", writes David Lawler.

He said "right now as it stands, there is no nexus to terrorism. But that does leave the window open because there is an ongoing investigation."

Of the victims Mr Earnest said, "everybody here at the White House is thinking of them today."

15.31 Matthias Gebauer, Der Spiegel magazine's online chief correspondent, has tweeted that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz may have suffered from depression or burnout.

He says he spoke to his neighbours and friends who said he was struck by depression during the several months he took out of his pilot training in 2009.

15.15 More about the recent newlyweds killed:

Among the victims were Asmae Ouahhoud el-Allaoui and Mohamed Tehrioui, a Moroccan couple who were married just three days prior to boarding the ill-fated Germanwings flight, writes David Lawler in Washington.

According to the New York Times the couple were travelling from La Llagosta, Spain, where Ms Allaoui lived, and planned to settle in Dusseldorf.

While Henry Samuel reports Norwegian airlines to place two people permanently in the cockpit following the crash.

^{A German police officer leaves a house believed to belong to crashed Germanwings flight 4U 9524 co-pilot Andreas Lubitz in Montabaur}

15.05 A mother of a schoolmate of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he had told her daughter that he had taken a break from his pilot training because he was suffering from depression, reports Rory Mulholland.

"Apparently he had a burnout, he was in depression," the woman, whom the paper did not name.

She said her daughter had seen him again just before Christmas and that he had appeared normal. The mother of his schoolmate said he was a "lovely boy". "He had a good family background," she told the paper.

Carsten Spohr, CEO of Germanwings parent company Lufthansa, said in a press conference today that Lubitz "took a break in his training six years ago. Then he did the tests (technical and psychological) again. And he was deemed 100 percent fit to fly."

"I am not able to state the reasons why he took the break for several months."

14.55 According to France Info, the parents of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz only found out that their son was likely the cause of the crash when they arrived in Marseille along with other families.

A coach of 40 relatives has arrived in Seyne-les-Alpes. Ten more coaches are due to arrive.

A State Department spokesman told David Lawler in Washington they are not releasing the name of the third American victim at the time being "out of respect for the family".

The other two victims were identified yesterday as Yvonne Selke of Virginia and her daughter Emily Selke, a recent university graduate.

The Selke family has released a statement: “Our entire family is deeply saddened by the losses of Yvonne and Emily Selke. Two wonderful, caring, amazing people who meant so much to so many. At this difficult time we respectfully ask for privacy and your prayers.”

14.51 Sandrine, the niece of Christian, a 59-year old from Belgium, expressed relief that the passengers were unaware of their impending demise until the final seconds, according to the black box voice recording, writes Henry Samuel.

"You can hear screams, but they didn't live through eight minutes of total horror," she told RTL radio, even if this was "a protocol not to panic people".

She called for airlines to review their processes for choosing pilots.

"Whether he's a terrorist or whether this is a suicide, I think that pilots should be more carefully followed. When people lose the plot, it's catastrophic," she said.

"If he had wanted to land on a town, can you imagine how many more deaths there would have been?"

She said her wish was that the best response to the copilot's actions was to forget him. "If that man did that to go out with a bang in the name of something, I hope that people will never talk about him in the media so that his wish is not fulfilled.

"Otherwise it opens the door to anyone. Any old nutter who wants to get his photo in the paper will start killing people."

14.49 In Montabaur, 20 minutes from the city of Koblentz, Johannesburg Rossbach, 23, who lives two doors away from Andreas Lubitz, said he would regularly see the pilot jogging through the neighbourhood's quiet streets, writes Patrick Sawer in Montabaur.

Mr Rossbach said: "He was very polite. He would always say hello and goodbye. There certainly seemed nothing out of the ordinary about him."

He added: "I didn't realise he was a pilot until I heard it yesterday. And today's news is absolutely shocking. I can't believe someone like that would kill 149 other people. It's something that absolutely needs investigating and proving before we can believe it."

The Lubitz family home, which the pilot is said to have shared with his parents, sits in an affluent middle class suburb on the edge of the small town of Montabaur.

At around 3pm someone inside the detached house, understood to be worth around half a million euros, let in a group of uniformed and plain clothes officers.

Few of Lubitz's other neighbours were prepared to speak about him or his family.

The family of the copilot will be questioned this afternoon by gendarmes in Seyne-les-Alpes and is in a state of shock, iTele reports.

14.36 Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister, was asked if co-pilot had any suspicious background or links to terror groups, writes Rory Mulholland.

He said: "According to the information we currently have, there was no such background."

14.32 According to James Healy-Pratt, a qualified pilot and aviation lawyer, this is not the first time suicide is suspected to be the cause of a plane crashing, writes David Millward.

"Pilot suicide has been suspected, circumstantially, in the Egyptair 990, Silk Air Indonesia and Malaysian Airlines 370 disasters. We are helping many families from MH370.

"If pilot suicide is found to be the cause of Germanwings, then we strongly believe that the airline will be full liable for unlimited compensation, as discussed earlier, to the families.

"This is because the airline is responsible for the actions of its pilots, as well as not having in place stringent cockpit security measures that US airlines (following 9/11) and others such as El Al, have had in place for more than a decade.

"The awful truth, if pilot suicide is the cause, is that this was a fully preventable tragedy.

"In the UK, we will be seeking coroners inquest verdicts on MH17 for the British families of unlawful killing, and will be seeking to do the same for the British families of Germanwings."

He added: "Germanwings will have insurance coverage for its liability to the families even if it is proved that intentional pilot conduct (suicide) was the cause of this tragedy.

"This is because the insurance remains valid unless there is cast iron evidence that senior management at Germanwings actively colluded in the alleged criminal activities of the co-pilot - which of course has no foundation at this time."

14.08 Can the crew - irrespective of the cockpit - trigger a distress signal?

"The crews also know the code. This was not used. But beyond this, the crews don't get any training in the cockpit - this is not permitted by the legislator.

"An emergency signal has to be transmitted by the cockpit. It is only allowed by fully licensed pilots. I have said that Lufthansa gives the same training to Lufthansa and Germanwings pilots.

"It is the same maintenance too."

Is the photo by the Golden Gate the picture of the co-pilot?

"We continue with our conviction today and yesterday that we want to protect the private sphere of individuals."

He said we flew the family members to Marseille, the crew had different transport.

"We thought that the family didn't get this information from the media, but from the personnel.

"The reactions are different.

"It is simply terrible what happened two days ago. Thank you very much for having come and listening."

14.02 On cockpit rules, he said: "There is regulations in some parts of the world - assuming too where you come from, the US.

"As far as I know none of the big airlines in Europe do so.

"I don't see any need to change this for the moment. But we should not jump into short notice abilities."

If the ministry of interior has said it is not terrorism, does that mean Germanwings says it is suicide?

I am not a lawyer. I am the CEO of a big company. If one person takes 149 people with him to death, it is not suicide.

14.00 On the issue of compensation, Mr Spohr said: "We will support them in any conceivable way. Of course there is insurance."

13.59 Have you heard that the passengers were struck by peculiarities about the co-pilot?

"We haven't heard of this, but of course we can look into this after.

"I trust my pilots - I've said it twice."

13.58 What kind of consequences will this have for the screening and training of pilots?

"I hope I speak on behalf of everyone in this room.

"My colleagues in management of Germanwings have full confidence in screening and training.

"Although this case is shocking, I have no doubts in the procedure.

"We will talk about what we should do better with training - but you should not confuse this with my basic trust in training.

Police officers stand by a police car in Montabaur, Germany

13.55 Journalists are asking questions and one is: Should he have left the cockpit?

"With Lufthansa, and with other airlines like Germanwings, for biological reasons you can leave the cockpit for short times.

"The pilot did exactly as he should during training. He waited until the plane had gone up to 38,000ft. And of course the co pilot had all necessary licences. There is a phrase: you have control.

"Apart from this there is no other conversation.

Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa

Are you sure the co-pilot committed suicide? Could he have forgotten the seven digit code?

"I can only tell you what the French prosecutor said today.

"I can only start from the assumption that the plane crashed intentionally.

Relatives of victims travel in buses after their arrival at Marseille airport

13.51 Harriet Alexander writes that Mr Spohr was asked can you exclude a terror attack?

"I can only follow the words of our ministry of interior; there are no signs whatsoever.

"Do you have a rule that another person enters the cockpit?

"No, this proceding is not provided for in Europe. Worldwide, very few airlines do so and I can not think of any of our competitors which would do so.

13.50 When asked about testing, Mr Spohr said: "Of course we have regular checks and also medical checks every year.

"There are no more psychological checks, but when training is carried our leadership is checked as such. And when there is an incapacity, the co-pilot can lead the plane and is competent to do so.

"But a special psychological test is not provided for."

He confirmed that flying was safe: "Flying is the safest means of transport, and has become more safe.

"We have a splendid record. We are focusing more and more on safety."

Police hold media away from the house where Andreas Lubitz lived in Montabaur, Germany

13.45 The co-pilot had a break during his training but Mr Spohr says upon their return they must do a lot of tests.

"The fact that it was interrupted makes us think there might be something but this is beyond us," Mr Spohr says.

Rory Mulholland writes that Mr Spohr said:

He (co-pilot) was 100 percent fit to fly. There was no particular thing to note or to watch out for (in him)."

"We choose our staff very stricty. the choice of staff is very strict - we not only take into account their techinical knowledge but also to the pyschological aspect of our staff."

He said the psychological tests carried out on their pilots by a specialised German training centre were regarded as among the best in the world.

13.42 Lufthansa's press conference has begun. Translation provided by the BBC News 24 Channel. Carsten Spohr, CEO, said:

"The co-pilot denied him access in order to start the fatal descent into the French Alps. I have to say it leaves us absolutely speechless.

"I can only repeat that we are deeply shocked - I would not have been able to imagine that the situation could get even worse.

"What we heard today was not imaginable for us.

"The two pilots who went to Bremen and the co-pilot started in 2008 after a time of waiting for eight months. From 2013 he was a First Officer on Airbuses 320/

"He went through all flight examinations. He was fit for flying. His performance was without any criticism. In a company of ours when we are so proud of our selection criteria, this is even more of a shock than it is for us and the general public.

"A few hours after hearing this, we could only speculate at what was the motivation af the co-pilot and at this point.

"I would like to say, this is by far the most terrible event of our company [but] we have full trust in our pilots - myself and my colleagues.

"They continue to be the best of the world. It will take a long time for us to understand what has happened. We will do everything possible to present findings."

13.33 Germanwings have tweeted of their shock at the recent news:

The press conference will begin imminently.

13.29 Three Spanish red cross vehicles have arrived at a resort in Le Vernet where a commemorative chapel has been opened, ahead of the relatives' arrival. They reached the resort shortly after 2pm local, writes Gregory Walton near Digne.

German diplomats have also been seen travelling to and from the site for most of the afternoon ahead of the German contingent's arrival..

At least 11 Gendarmerie vans have been positioned to block the view of the gathered media and restrict public access to the chapel.

There are reports that a mobile medical centre has also been set up nearby to allow family members to provide DNA samples to expedite identification, though this is unconfirmed.

Meanwhile the search for remains continues with investigators adopting a 'buddy' system by which they are paired with an experienced mountaineer in order to access the remote crash site.

13.24 According to Alexander Dobrindt, German transport minister, it is plausible that the plane was crashed deliberately. He said he was devastated by the latest details, BBC report.

^{Alexander Dobrindt delivers a statement in Berlin}

13.22 Described by acquaintances as quiet but friendly, the 28-year-old began to dream of flying as a youth in his home town of Montabaur, in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of western Germany, Press Association reports.

13.05 From AFP: Lubitz was an avid runner who often took part in local races, according to public records.

Lubitz was from the western town of Montabaur and lived with his parents there while keeping a flat in Duesseldorf, a Germanwings hub and the city for which the doomed flight from Barcelona was bound, Montabaur mayor Gabriele Wieland told national news agency, DPA.

12.55 The European air safety agency EASA and US counterpart the FAA told the airline industry to find ways to prevent the takeover of passenger planes, even under the threat of deadly force, AFP reports.

"The systems differ according to each plane and airline to avoid a standard and prevent would-be terrorists from knowing how they work from one carrier or plane to another," said a sector specialist who asked not to be identified.

Germanwings planes require an access code to open the door but the airline, which is owned by Lufthansa, did not wish to give details "for security reasons" nor say whether a crow-bar or similar device was available to force the door open.

Some carriers, but not all, have placed tools such as axes in planes for use in such cases.

12.42 Here is a summary via AFP of the prosecutor's remarks:

The co-pilot "deliberately" initiated the descent of the Germanwings flight that crashed into the French Alps and refused to open the door to the pilot who was outside the cockpit, the lead investigator said on Thursday.

The co-pilot, named as 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz, appeared to "show a desire to want to destroy" the plane, prosecutor Brice Robin told reporters.

"The co-pilot was alone at the controls," said Mr Robin, presenting information gathered from the "black box" recorder that records sounds and conversations from the cockpit.

"He ... refused to open the door of the cockpit to the pilot and deliberately began the descent of the plane."

Lubitz was identified as a German citizen who was not known to have any links to terrorism or extremists, Mr Robin said, adding that German authorities were expected to provide additional information on his background and private life later Thursday or Friday.

The co-pilot turned the "flight monitoring system" button to initiate the plane's descent and spoke "not a single word" during the last 10 minutes before the plane crashed.

French prosecutor of Marseille Brice Robin (C), flanked by General David Galtier (R), speaks to the press in Marignane airport

12.41 This is a graphic by Sam Dodge to explain how access to the cockpit works. A Europe-based pilot flying for a major airline told Harriet Alexander:

"Some airlines have a policy of always having two crew members in the cockpit - so if one of the pilots goes out for a toilet break an attendant has to stay in the cockpit during that time.

"I can see that becoming mandatory now."

12.40 Below is believed to be a picture of Andreas Lubitz:

12.26 "The relations of the pilots will be questioned by the German authorities," the prosecutor said.

"The families are in a state of shock and find it hard to believe. I tried to respond as best I could. Some were too technical, but everything else I answered as I have to you.

"There is a clear independent fault, that's for sure. Whether the company employing him is at fault is another question and one that does not concern me today.

"The co-pilot visibly benefited from the absence of the captain."

Relatives of passengers of the Germanwings airliner that crashed in the French Alps

12.13 "There was no contact between neither the pilot nor the co pilot during the last eight minutes of the flight,"

There were numerous appeals for information from Marseille tower and there was absolutely no response.

Prosecutor Brice Robin said the co-pilot is "not known by us" to have links to terrorism or extremists, and that German authorities are expected to provide additional information on his background and private life later Thursday or Friday.

12.11 "We only hear screams in the last seconds. Death was instant. The two families of the captain and co-pilot have arrived but not mixed with the familes," Mr Robin.

"There is nothing to say that it was a terrorist attack. I will not use the term suicide beause there were 148 people in the back of the plane."

Mr Robin said the black-box cockpit recording recovered from the wreckage of the disaster suggested passengers did not realise what was happening until the last moment.

12.08 More from the prosecutor:

The data box can help us determine whether other factors come into play. It is a catastrophe site that is "complicated". A memorial stone in French, German and Spanish is in place at Le Vernet

The families have been informed of all the information that I have told you. They asked many questions on international rules, whether it was normal that the captain left the cabin, many questions.

Earlier Gregory Walton writes that the prosecutor said the investigators were completely unaware of why he activated the button. We have solicited information from the German judicial authorities.

"Information about the personal lives of the pilots has been sought," Mr Robin added.

12.03 There was no one else in the cabin and the second black box corresponds to the details of the aircraft, the prosecutor says.

12.02 Andreas Lubitz was the co-pilot, Gregory Walton reports.

11.59 More from the prosecutor via Henry Samuel.

I am saying that given the elements I have today, I can only say that he deliberately allowed the loss of altitude. It's not a loss that is totally abnormal, 1,000ft per minute; but he had no reason to do it, or not to allow captain in to cabin, he had no reason not to explain to air traffic control why he was losing altitude

The theory that he had a health attack? Apparently he was breathing normally, so this is not someone having a heart attack, for example.

I think that the victims only realised what was happening at the last minute and I think that he voluntarily refused to open the door and turned the button to bring the plane down.

Co-pilot is of German nationality, I don't know his ethnic origin. He is not listed as a terrorist if this is what you mean.

Since September 2001, the US imposed a double security system. There is a security code, either a camera to recognise the person outside, then you need to action the opening of the door. This plane was from 1991

Once you go out of the door, it locks, it's an auto-locking system. The co-pilot gave brief, laconic responses to the captain, it wasn't a real dialogue.

When the captain talked about the check list for landing, the responses of the co-pilot were short, it wasn't a real exchange.

To my knowledge there was no particular panic as the co-pilot breathing was regularly. I first opened an inqurity of involuntary homicide, manslaughter. I may change that status, but not yet.

I don't have the town in Germany from where the co-pilot is from. The information on the copilot will mainly come from German authortities. He lived in Germany and was Germany, so we have no particular information.

Angela Merkel and Mariano Rajoy promised Mr Hollande to accelerate all help, so I expect fast responses to requests for information.

The captain left the cabin in autopilot leaving the other in control. He left to relieve himself, we think.

Religion of pilot? I have given you his nationality, I don't think it is in this direction that one should look. Andreas Lubitz is name confirmed!

11.56 These are the prosecutors comments in full:

We heard the captain ask the co-pilot to take control, then we hear the noise of a seat that goes back and a door open, we can assume he went to relieve himself.

The co-pilot was alone. It is at this moment that the co-pilot manipulates the buttons of flight monitoring system to action the descent of the plane.

The action of this altitude can only be deliberate. We hear the captain then speaks via an interphone to speak to the co-pilot, no response of co-pilot, he taps on door, no response from the co-pilot, all we can hear is the sound of breathing, until impact suggesting the co-pilot was alive until impact.

Air traffic control tried to get through via 7700 but couldn't get through. Air traffic control even tried to contact other planes to try and contact the plane, but no response.

Alarms sounded to signal to crew the proximity of the ground, then we hear banging of someone trying to break down the door

The pull up alarms to pull the plane up went off.

Just before the final impact one can heard what appears to be the first impact of the plane on a mountain top.

There was no message of distress type or mayday recevied by air traffic control, and no response to all the air traffic controllers.

The interpretation is 48 hours after the crash, I take precautions, but for us investigating...the most plausible and realistic is that the co-pilot by a deliberate decision refused to open the cabin door to the captain and actioned the button ordering the loss of altitude.

There was a deliberate desire to destroy this plane. Apparently the co-pilot was breathing normally. He said absolutely nothing after the captain left the cabin.

11.50 Brice Robin, Marseille prosecutor, has said it appears that the German co-pilot crashed the plane deliberately and he was alive at the point of impact.

11.40 A German state prosecutor confirmed on Thursday that only one of the two Germanwings pilots was in the cockpit when a flight to Dusseldorf from Barcelona crashed in the French Alps this week.

"One was in the cockpit and the other wasn't," Christoph Kumpa at the prosecutors' office in Duesseldorf told Reuters by telephone, adding that the information came from investigators in France. Prosecutors from both countries are looking into the cause of the accident.

Mr Kumpa said he did not know whether it was the captain or the co-pilot who was in the cockpit. Neither Germanwings or parent company Lufthansa has released the identity of the two pilots.

11.38 Anti riot police were standing guard at the Palais des Congres Gerard Gastinel in Digne ahead of the expected arrival of members of the victims families today. They were joined by Red Cross volunteers who are preparing to receive the grieving relatives, writes Gregory Walton.

^{Palais des Congres Gerard Gastinel}

11.24 Reuters is reporting that the German prosecutors' office has said it does not know which of the two pilots was out of the cockpit.

11.14 A flying club which the First Officer was a member of has released a statement in tribute to him:

Andreas died as First Officer on the tragic flight. Andreas became a member of the association as a teenager, he wanted to realise his dream of flying. He began as a gliding student and made it to become a pilots on an Airbus 320.

He was able to fulfill his dream, the dream he has now so dearly paid for with his life. The members of the LSC Westerwald mourn Andreas and the other 149 victims of the disaster on March 24, 2015.

Our deepest sympathy goes out to the families. We will not forget Andrew. The members of the Luftsportclub Westerwald.

^{Relatives of passengers of the Germanwings airliner that crashed in the French Alps leave the Gran Hotel Rey Don Jaime towards Barcelona El Prat airport}

11.11 Airbus has a video explaining how to unlock cockpit door in an emergency, writes Henry Samuel, that was made in 2002.

11.03 Europe1, a French website, has an exclusive interview with a former colleague of the captain, Patrick S.

"He was one of the best," the report quotes a retired Lufthansa pilot identified only as Dieter.

"He was someone very reliable, he was one of the best pilots we had," he says. "I am 100 per cent sure they did the best they could. That's what I think because I knew him very well, he was one of the best, he had a lot of experience, he had more than 6,000 flight hours behind him."

10.56 Note on the names: it's common practice in German media to name people only with a first name and the first letter of their surname, in order to get around the country's strict privacy laws.

10.51 Bild has named the captain as Patrick S. He was the father of two children. He flew for over ten years for Lufthansa and Germanwings and had completed more than 6,000 flight hours on the Airbus 320.

The paper names the First Officer as Andreas L. He was "young". He was from Montabaur, in Rhineland-Palatinate. He had 630 flight hours. He joined Germanwings in September 2013 straight from the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Bremen.

10.48 German newspaper Bild reporting an Andreas L is the co-pilot. NB. This has not been verified by the Telegraph.

10.40 A Vueling Airbus 320 bound from Barcelona to Munich returned and made an emergency landing after crew reported a "burning smell", writes Ben Farmer.

The flight landed back at El Prat as a "precaution" soon after it departed at 06.55.

The 137 passengers were put on another plane and took off at 09.40.

10.20 Families of victims from the Germanwings plane that crashed into the French Alps arrived in France on Thursday, an interior ministry spokesman said.

"Two planes from Dusseldorf and Barcelona, with families and friends of victims on board, have just landed," Pierre-Henry Brandet said. They are due to meet prosecutor Brice Robin before taking a bus to the area of the crash in the Alps.

09.33 They are not naming the pilots at this moment, and cannot give out any information as to when they will name them, writes Justin Huggler in Berlin.

They said they "cannot confirm or deny the report in the New York Times, The investigation is the responsibility of the French authorities".

Both pilots were trained at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Bremen.

The captain had over 6,000 flight hours' experience. He joined Germanwings in May 2014. Previously he was a pilot with Lufthansa and Condor, a Lufthansa partner airline.

The first officer joined Germanwings in September 2013. He had about 630 flight hours. They were unable to confirm whether this was his first job as a professional pilot, or any previous experience.

09.22 The German pilots' union say they are making no comment and giving out no information until the next Germanwings press conference, which will be at 2.30pm CET (1.30pm London time). They say they will not name the pilots, that is for the company to do.

The Lufthansa flight training school in Bremen say they have been told to give out no information and are referring all queries to the Lufthansa press office in Frankfurt.

^{Search and rescue personnel near the scattered debris while making their way through the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320}

09.01 David Kaminski-Morrow, air transport editor of the Flightglobal publication, told Press Association there had been crashes in Mozambique and Japan where something similar had happened.

He said: "Usually the cockpit door locks and to get in you have to have to put in a code, but inside there is a simple switch on the control panel the pilot would turn to lock the door.

He went on: "It looks like this incident has precedent at least consistent with that being a possibility. I'm starting to count the number of fatalities that can be attributed to the cockpit doors and whether its locks are saving lives."

Former Lufthansa engineering technical instructor Stephen Wright, who trains undergraduate pilots at the University of Leeds, said there was an incident 12 months ago in the US where one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit.

On that occasion the other pilot requested a priority landing and the plane touched down safely.

"The whole case of the Airbus Alps crash is most unusual," said Dr Wright.

08.54 Aviation experts interviewed by AFP suggested several theories for what happened in light of the NYT report. "If the pilots did not stop the airplane from flying into the mountains, it is because they were unconscious or dead, or they had decided to die, or they were forced to die," one expert told AFP.

Germanwings' parent company Lufthansa said the co-pilot had been working for them since September 2013 and had 630 hours of flight experience.

The pilot had more than 10 years experience and 6,000 hours flying time.

08.01 More from the report in the New York Times, as police say the search and rescue operation continues.

“I don’t like it,” said the French official, who cautioned that his initial analysis was based on the very limited information currently available. “To me, it seems very weird: this very long descent at normal speed without any communications, though the weather was absolutely clear.”

"So far, we don’t have any evidence that points clearly to a technical explanation,” the official said. “So we have to consider the possibility of deliberate human responsibility.”

08.00 So far there hasn't been much information about the pilots but now Lufthansa have released a statement with information about the pilots.

The co-pilot of the Germanwings jet that crashed in the French Alps was on the job since September 2013 and had 630 hours of flying experience, the parent company, German flag carrier Lufthansa, said.

The co-pilot "was First Officer at Germanwings since September 2013," a Lufthansa spokesman told AFP.

He had been trained as a pilot at Lufthansa Flight Training in the northern German city of Bremen and had 630 hours of flying experience under his belt. By comparison the plane's pilot had more than 10 years experience and 6,000 hours of experience flying the Airbus A320 model, Lufthansa revealed previously.

The spokesman said Lufthansa could neither confirm nor deny information that said one of the two pilots on the doomed flight was locked out of the cockpit before the plane went down.

07.45 A German newspaper quotes a pilot at Germanwings saying that the plane that crashed was unpopular with crews because it was known for technical problems, writes Justin Huggler in Berlin.

It was "one of our most frequently grounded planes", the unnamed pilot told Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.

The plane was grounded for an hour for repairs to its nose-wheel landing doors the day before the accident, but Lufthansa says that repair was "not safety-related".

07.27 Francois Hollande, Angela Merkel and Mariano Rajoy fly over the Germanwings crash site near Digne les Bains

06.58 Last night the New York Times reported that a pilot left the cockpit and was unable to return before the plane descended. The report came via a senior military source involved in the investigation and overnight, Germanwings issued a statement in response.

"At the moment, we do not have information from competent authorities to confirm this story.

"We are doing everything to get the most information possible and we are not engaging in speculation."

A rescue helicopter from the French Gendarmerie flies over the snow covered French Alps during a search and rescue operation

06.33 More information via AFP about the victims of the crash.

Kazakhstan's foreign ministry confirmed that three of its citizens - Erbol and Adil Imankulov and Aizhan Isengaliyeva - were among the dead.

The ministry said it was trying to confirm whether a fourth passenger held Kazakh citizenship.

A newly married Moroccan couple headed for a new life in Germany were on the doomed plane, a relative said.

04.40  The French broadcaster, TF1 says that the victims of the Germanwings disaster were drawn from around 15 countries includnig Australia, Belgium, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, Morocco and Mexico.

04.02 A touching tribute to Emily Selke, one of the American victims of the disaster from the Gamma Sigma Sigma's Zeta chapter at Drexel University on its Facebook page.

As a person and friend, Emily always put others before herself and cared deeply for all those in her life. Emily will be greatly missed by her fellow sisters of Zeta. Please keep Emily, her mother and their family in your thoughts and prayers during this heartbreaking time.

03.34 More detail from the cockpit recordings emerging from the AFP news agency. It says that they show that one of the seats was pushed back and that the door was opened and closed. There was also the sound of knocking, but then no more conversation until the crash.

_{Tributes to pupils and teachers killed in the Airbus crash outside the Joseph Koenig school in Haltern}

03.14  The airline, which has been praised by Handelsblatt for its handling of the crisis, also stressed that the two pilots on the Germanwings flight were Lufthansa pilots. One, who has not been named, had 6,000 flying hours experience on the Airbus A320.

02.50  Lufthansa is refusing to discuss reports that a pilot was locked out of the cockpit. A spokesman tells CNN it will not "comment on speculation".

01.10 More on the report that one of the pilots was heard trying to force his way back into the cockpit. With the FBI having not, as yet, found any terrorist links among the passengers, the possibility that a pilot could have been incapacitated while his colleague was temporarily absent is becoming one possible theory.

Two pilots are always used on short haul flights to ensure that there is always somebody capable of flying an aircraft on board. Incapacitation is not unknown. In 2010 the Civil Aviation Authority reported that there had been 32 occasion in the previous year when a pilot on a British-registered aircraft had been incapacitated. One of the main causes of pilots being unable to fly was food poisoning. On one occasion, on December 6 2009 a pilot collapsed twice in the cockpit of a Boeing 747 and required oxygen after a suspected case of food poisoning.

23.42  In a fresh development the New York Times says one of the plane's pilots was locked out of the cockpit. Quoting a senior military official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, it says the pilot was heard on the voice recording trying to smash down the cockpit door.

"We don’t know yet the reason why one of the guys went out. But what is sure is that at the very end of the flight, the other pilot is alone and does not open the door.”

22.31  According to AFP helicopters have started airlifting the remains of the crash victims from the mountainside.

22.00  James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer and pilot says the loss of radio contact is noteworthy, but sounds a note of caution.

In an emergency situation, like Air France and Air Asia, pilots are trained to aviate, navigate then communicate, all strictly in that order for obvious flight safety reasons. The cockpit of an airbus airliner during an emergency is a high stress zone, with multiple visual and aural warnings confronting the pilots. Their workload at that time is extremely high.

^{Helicopter taking rescue workers to site}

21.28 Our Paris correspondent, Henry Samuel, and video journalist Alastair Good have spent the day hiking up the mountains to get close to the crash site.

Henry writes:

On day one, their task was simply to locate parts of the plane and the remains of the passengers and crew.

But on Wednesday, French rescue workers began the arduous task of collecting debris and remains from the steep, dangerous slope of the Alpine mountain where a Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed, killing all 150 on board.

With all main access routes blocked by gendarmes, the Telegraph was able to approach the crash site, and witness helicopters winching rescue workers down to a near-vertical mountain flank. They were harnessed to colleagues as they inched their way up and down the treacherous rock and sand slopes.

Despite their painstaking search, they have still failed to locate the flight data recorder, which could prove vital in understanding what happened in the mysterious crash. In particular, investigators want to know why the plane deviated from its agreed flight plan and descended rapidly for eight minutes and why the pilots failed to respond to repeated calls from air traffic control.

Every few minutes, rotor blades whirred overhead as helicopters brought more climbers to the site or took bags containing debris and remains back for analysis.

“The identification of bodies will take several days,” said Brice Robin, the Marseille prosecutor.

Parts of the fuselage were recognisable, but the debris was as fragmented as confetti as the entire plane was “pulverised” when it slammed into the mountain at 500mph.

21.15 For a recap of the past 24 hours, you can read through our coverage hour-by-hour.

21.00 Hello, and welcome to our continued coverage of the French Alps crash.