Updated 5:33 PM ET, Thu March 26, 2015

Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Response teams gather in Seyne-les-Alpes on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

A helicopter carries emergency personnel near the crash site on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Relatives of the flight’s passengers arrive at the airport in Barcelona on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

People waiting for Flight 9525 are led away by airport staff in Dusseldorf on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

People arrive at the Dusseldorf Airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

People hold hands walking through the Dusseldorf Airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

The arrivals board at the Dusseldorf Airport shows Germanwings Flight 9525 without a status on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

An employee of Swissport, the handling agent of Germanwings flights from Barcelona, speaks by phone at the Barcelona-El Prat Airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Relatives of people involved in the crash arrive at the Barcelona airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

A man who appears to be waiting for news on Flight 9525 covers his face at the Dusseldorf Airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Airport staff in Dusseldorf escort people to a waiting area on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

People arrive at a holding area for friends and relatives of Flight 9525 at the Dusseldorf Airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

A man in Madrid looks at a monitor with a map, released from the Flightradar24 website, showing the point where the plane’s radar signal went missing.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

This undated file photo shows the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed. Germanwings is a low-cost airline owned by the Lufthansa Group.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Rescue workers continue to search the site of the Germanwings plane crash on Thursday, March 26. Germanwings Flight 9525 was en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany, when it crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday, March 24. There were 144 passengers and six crew members on board.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Police stand guard March 26 near the house where Andreas Lubitz, co-pilot of Flight 9525, lived in Montabaur, Germany. Information collected by investigators suggests Lubitz was alone at the controls of the plane and deliberately crashed it, a prosecutor said.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Debris from the plane is seen along a mountainside in the French Alps on Wednesday, March 25.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Search and rescue teams land near the crash site on March 25.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Rescue workers continue their search operation near the crash site on March 25.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

French military personnel move up a mountainside March 25 near Seyne-les-Alpes, France.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

The cockpit voice recorder of the Germanwings jet appears in a photo provided by the French air accident investigation bureau on March 25.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Another photo from the French air accident investigation bureau shows the bottom of the cockpit voice recorder. The device is designed to capture all sounds on a plane’s flight deck.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

A helicopter comes in to land near Seyne-les-Alpes, the staging ground for search efforts, on March 25.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Police and rescue teams gather at a temporary rescue and rest center in Seyne-les-Alpes on March 25.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Debris from the jet is visible at the crash site in the French Alps on Tuesday, March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Rescue workers and members of the French Gendarmerie gather in Seyne-les-Alpes on March 24 as search-and-rescue teams struggle to reach the remote crash.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Wreckage is seen at the crash site on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Response teams gather in Seyne-les-Alpes on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

A helicopter carries emergency personnel near the crash site on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Relatives of the flight’s passengers arrive at the airport in Barcelona on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

People waiting for Flight 9525 are led away by airport staff in Dusseldorf on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

People arrive at the Dusseldorf Airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

People hold hands walking through the Dusseldorf Airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

The arrivals board at the Dusseldorf Airport shows Germanwings Flight 9525 without a status on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

An employee of Swissport, the handling agent of Germanwings flights from Barcelona, speaks by phone at the Barcelona-El Prat Airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Relatives of people involved in the crash arrive at the Barcelona airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

A man who appears to be waiting for news on Flight 9525 covers his face at the Dusseldorf Airport on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Airport staff in Dusseldorf escort people to a waiting area on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

People arrive at a holding area for friends and relatives of Flight 9525 at the Dusseldorf Airport on March 24.

Hide Caption

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

A man in Madrid looks at a monitor with a map, released from the Flightradar24 website, showing the point where the plane’s radar signal went missing.

Hide Caption

26 of 27

Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

This undated file photo shows the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed. Germanwings is a low-cost airline owned by the Lufthansa Group.

Hide Caption

27 of 27

Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Rescue workers continue to search the site of the Germanwings plane crash on Thursday, March 26. Germanwings Flight 9525 was en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany, when it crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday, March 24. There were 144 passengers and six crew members on board.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Police stand guard March 26 near the house where Andreas Lubitz, co-pilot of Flight 9525, lived in Montabaur, Germany. Information collected by investigators suggests Lubitz was alone at the controls of the plane and deliberately crashed it, a prosecutor said.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Debris from the plane is seen along a mountainside in the French Alps on Wednesday, March 25.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Search and rescue teams land near the crash site on March 25.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Rescue workers continue their search operation near the crash site on March 25.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

French military personnel move up a mountainside March 25 near Seyne-les-Alpes, France.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

The cockpit voice recorder of the Germanwings jet appears in a photo provided by the French air accident investigation bureau on March 25.

Hide Caption

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Another photo from the French air accident investigation bureau shows the bottom of the cockpit voice recorder. The device is designed to capture all sounds on a plane’s flight deck.

Hide Caption

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

A helicopter comes in to land near Seyne-les-Alpes, the staging ground for search efforts, on March 25.

Hide Caption

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Police and rescue teams gather at a temporary rescue and rest center in Seyne-les-Alpes on March 25.

Hide Caption

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Debris from the jet is visible at the crash site in the French Alps on Tuesday, March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Rescue workers and members of the French Gendarmerie gather in Seyne-les-Alpes on March 24 as search-and-rescue teams struggle to reach the remote crash.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Wreckage is seen at the crash site on March 24.

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Germanwings plane crashes in France 27 photos

Response teams gather in Seyne-les-Alpes on March 24.

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Story highlights

• Lufthansa CEO says his company is “speechless that this aircraft has been deliberately crashed by the co-pilot”
• Investigators say they’re baffled as to why
• A village near the crash site opens its homes to victims’ loved ones

What questions do you have about the crash? Post on Twitter with the hashtag #GermanwingsQs. We’ll take them to aviation experts and try to get them answered.

(CNN)Latest developments:

• 5:32 p.m. ET: Transponder data shows that the autopilot on Germanwings Flight 9525 was reprogrammed by someone in the cockpit to change the plane’s altitude from 38,000 feet to 100 feet, according to Flightradar24, a website that tracks aviation data.

• 5:14 p.m. ET: Police searched Germanwings Flight 9525 co-pilot Andreas Lubitz’s apartment in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Thursday, the city’s police spokesman said in televised comments. A team of five investigators went “through the apartment looking for clues as to what the co-pilot’s motivation might have been, if he did indeed bring the plane down,” police spokesman Markus Niesczery said.

Full story:

The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 purposely crashed the plane into the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 people on board, officials said Thursday.

“We at Lufthansa are speechless that this aircraft has been deliberately crashed by the co-pilot,” said Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings.

FBI assisting in crash investigation01:51

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Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said the co-pilot, 28-year-old German national Andreas Lubitz, apparently “wanted to destroy the aircraft.”

It’s unknown whether Lubitz planned his actions, Robin said. But he “took advantage” of a moment in which the pilot left the cockpit and “activated the descent,” which can only be done deliberately.

Andreas Lubitz

It’s also unclear whether the pilot entered a code to try to get back into the cockpit, or whether Lubitz “put the lever on lock,” which would have prevented the code from working, Spohr said.

What is known is that screaming could be heard on an audio recording for the final few minutes of the flight.

Death was instantaneous for those on board when the plane plunged into the mountains, Robin said.

German authorities also say “that we have to assume” that Flight 9525 “was deliberately activated for a crash,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday. “This is hard to comprehend for most people. Nobody can imagine this.”

The French government has asked the FBI to help investigate the crash, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

A search is underway for the plane’s second “black box,” the flight data recorder, which could shed more light on the plane’s final minutes.

Who was co-pilot Andreas Lubitz?

No clues about why co-pilot would crash plane

Investigators so far say they’re baffled about why Lubitz would have done this

Lufthansa does “not have any clues,” Spohr said.

The picture of the plane’s final minutes comes largely from what was discovered in the mangled cockpit voice recorder.

Lufthansa CEO: Speechless that co-pilot crashed plane 01:08

PLAY VIDEO

The pilot and co-pilot had normal exchanges during the beginning of the flight, Robin said. When the pilot stepped out to go to the bathroom, he asked Lubitz to take over.

The most plausible explanation of what happened next is that Lubitz, “through deliberate abstention, refused to open the cabin door … to the chief pilot, and used the button” to cause the plane to lose altitude, Robin said.

The disaster is not being described as a “terrorist attack,” and the killing of 150 people would generally not be described as a “suicide” either, Robin said. Spohr agreed: “If a person kills himself and also 149 other people, another word should be used — not suicide,” he said.

Lubitz was not known to be on any terrorism list, and his religion was not immediately known, Robin said.

5 cases of pilots intentionally crashing

Lufthansa has no standard psychological testing after hiring

He had been with Germanwings since September 2013 and had completed 630 hours of flight time, the company said. Lubitz had trained at the Lufthansa flight center in Bremen, Germany.

He only had about 100 hours of experience on the type of aircraft he was flying, but he had all the necessary certifications and qualifications to pilot the aircraft alone, the prosecutor said.

He had passed medical tests, Spohr said. The audio recording showed his breathing to be steady, with no sign that he had a heart attack or other medical issue.

Lufthansa does not have standard psychological testing for pilots once they are hired, Spohr said. The company considers an applicant’s psychological state when hiring, he said.

The co-pilot was “fully qualified to pilot the aircraft on his own,” Robin said.

A man in Montabaur, Germany, who belonged to the same flight club as Lubitz, said he couldn’t believe it. “The way I know Andreas, this is inconceivable,” Peter Ruecker said Thursday.

An 8-minute descent to death

Village opens homes to victims’ loved ones

Relatives and friends of the victims traveled Thursday on special Lufthansa flights to an area near the site where their loved ones perished.

Seyne-les-Alpes, a nearby town, is serving as a staging post. Mayor Francis Hermitte predicted that 200 to 300 people would come to the area Thursday.

Most are not expected to stay overnight, he said. But in case they do, he said, local residents have offered accommodations for them.

Lufthansa is providing “financial support” to relatives of the victims, Spohr said. He declined to go into details.

The families of the two pilots are also in France, Robin said, but they are not in the same place as the passengers’ relatives.

The bodies of the crash victims will not be released to family members until all DNA identification work has been done — a process likely to last several weeks, he said.

While some human remains have been recovered, many have not. The task is treacherous for search crews working on steep slopes in icy weather. Workers were dropped by helicopters and tied together for safety.

The mountainous terrain where the Germanwings jet went down is difficult to access.

Mother, daughter among 3 American victims

Victims from 18 countries