Germanwings co-pilot researched cockpit doors, suicide online: Prosecutors

Berlin: German prosecutors said on Thursday the co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a Germanwings plane in the French Alps had searched online for information about suicide and cockpit doors in the week before the disaster.

The second black box was also found after a nine-day search, prosecutors said.

Authorities are hoping to unearth more clues about the disaster from the black box after the first voice recorder, which suggested that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately flew the plane into a mountain.

A tablet computer which prosecutors said was used by Lubitz was found in a search of a flat he used in Duesseldorf, the prosecutor's office in the western city said in a statement.

"The browser history wasn't erased, in particular the search terms called up on this device in the period from March 16 to March 23 were able to be retraced," it said.

It indicated the user had been researching "medical methods of treatment", "ways to commit suicide" as well as "cockpit doors and their security provisions", it added.