Investigators say they have no reason to believe the incident was a terrorist act. But they are at a loss to explain why co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 28, decided to take his own life and that of 149 other passengers and crew on-board Airbus A320 by crashing it into an Alpine ravine on Tuesday.
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Here is what we do know about the aircraft's final moments according to Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin.
Both captain and co-pilot were behaving normally before the crash
The aircraft took off at 10.01 am, about 26 minutes late. The pair engaged in "normal" conversation for the first 20 minutes of the flight heading from Barcelona to Dusseldorf. But Lubitz's replies became "laconic" as they started readying what would have been the normal descent to the German airport.
"His responses become very brief. There is no proper exchange as such," Robin said.
The captain left the co-pilot alone
When they reached cruising altitude of 38,000 feet, Lubitz told the captain he could go to the toilet. The captain asked Lubitz to take over, and left the cockpit for around ten minutes, probably to use the bathroom.
Lubitz locked himself in the cockpit
Investigators said Lubitz purposefully locked the captain out and himself inside the cockpit, because this can only be done manually.
By doing so, he overrode the A320 Airbus' safety mechanism which allows emergency entry into the cockpit.
The descent begins
When Lubitz was left alone, he used the flight monitoring system to lower the plane.
The captain banged at the cockpit door
The black box recorder revealed that someone, likely the pilot, pounded on the cockpit door after Lubitz locked the door at about 10.35am.
There was no distress call
What concerned investigators before the black box was found was that no distress was sent out from the cockpit when the plane began plummeting. Pleas for response from the control tower were also ignored by Lubitz, and of course the captain who was locked outside at the time.
Lubitz remained silent during the descent
His breathing was calm as the plane's instrument alarms sounded and the captain pounded on the cockpit door.
"You don't get the impression that there was any particular panic, because the breathing is always the same. The breathing is not panting. It's a classic, human breathing," Robin said.
The captain is also ignored when he identifies himself through the intercom system.
Screaming could be heard as the plane neared impact
The 144 passengers only realised at the last moment what was happening, and screams were only heard in the last moments of the recording, before the impact.
"The victims realised just at the last moment," Robin said. "We can hear them screaming. Death was instant. It hit the mountain at 700km (430mph) an hour."
The plane crashes
The black box recorder picked up the sound of pounding during the final minutes as alarms sounded. Finally the sound of an impact is heard. The jet hit the mountainside at about 10.40am and the last sounds on the voice recorder are screams of the passengers.
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