The Germanwings co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a plane in the French Alps in March, killing all 150 people on board, practiced a descent on the previous flight that very same day.

A report on the crash by the ‘Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses’ (BEA), France’s air accident investigation agency, showed that Andreas Lubitz had set the altitude dial on the Airbus A320’s autopilot to 100 feet five times while alone in the cockpit on the previous flight from Düsseldorf to Barcelona on 24 March.

Prosecutors believe 27-year-old German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit and steered the plane into a mountainside on a flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf on March 24.

Controlled Descent

According to sources the BEA report would talk about a “controlled descent that lasted for minutes and for which there was no aeronautical justification”.

The BEA said it would issue a preliminary report but declined to comment on its contents or on the Bild report.

Lubitz had suffered from severe depression in the past and a computer found in his home showed he had used the Internet to research ways of committing suicide in the days leading up to the crash.

Prosecutors also found torn-up sick notes at his home, showing he should not have flown on the day of the flight.

Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, declined to comment on the Bild report, pointing to the ongoing investigation.