French accident investigators say information contained in the second black box recovered form the Germanwings crash site confirms co-pilot Andreas Lubitz acted deliberately.

“A first reading shows that the pilot in the cockpit used the automatic pilot to descend the plane towards an altitude of 30 metres,” said the French BEA crash investigation office.

“Then, several times during the descent, the pilot changed the automatic pilot settings to increase the aircraft’s speed,” added the investigators.

Authorities found the second black box, which contains technical flight data, on Thursday after a gruelling nine-day search in difficult mountain terrain.