The co-pilot of the Germanwings plane which crashed in the French Alps may have practised a rapid descent on a previous flight, reports have claimed.
German newspaper Bild quotes French investigators as saying co-pilot Andreas Lubitz tried a controlled descent earlier on the day of the crash.
An interim report into the investigation is due to be published today by the French authorities.
It is believed Lubitz deliberately crashed the Airbus 320, killing all 150 people on board on March 24.
According to the BBC, Bild quotes sources saying that Lubitz tried “a controlled, minute-long descent for which there was no aeronautical reason”.
The incident is thought to have happened on the plane’s outbound flight from Duesseldorf to Barcelona on the same day as the crash.