The co-pilot accused of purposefully crashing a Germanwings flight, killing everyone on board, might have practiced his actions on an earlier flight, according to a report published Wednesday.
French authorities said that, on a flight the day of the March 24 crash, Andreas Lubitz set the plane’s altitude to 100 feet multiple times while his fellow pilot was out of the cockpit, according to The New York Times.
{mosads}“To us, it is clear that this was some kind of rehearsal,” the director of the agency that produced the report told the Times.
Authorities had already said that they believed Lubitz had intentionally crashed the plane. They said it appeared Lubitz had deliberately locked his colleague out of the cockpit during the aircraft’s fatal descent, which ended when it crashed into the French Alps.
The plane was carrying 150 people at the time of the crash.
Speculation has focused on Lubitz’s reported history of depression, as investigators have continued to understand what led to the incident.