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ByGeirMoulson The Associated Press BERLIN Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lub- itz spent time online re- searching suicide methods and cockpit door security in the week before crash- ing Flight 9525, prosecu- tors said Thursday — the first evidence that the fa- tal descent may have been a premeditated act. As the browsing history on a tablet computer found at Lubitz's apartment added a disturbing new piece to the puzzle of the March 24 crash, French investigators said they had recovered the Airbus A320's flight data re- corder — another step to- ward completing the pic- ture. Attention has focused on Lubitz since investigators evaluated the plane's cock- pit voice recorder last week. They believe the 27-year-old locked his captain out of the cockpit during the flight from Barcelona to Dues- seldorf and deliberately plunged the plane into a French mountainside. Duesseldorf prosecu- tors said they had re- viewed search terms from March 16-23 that were in the browser memory of the computer found in Lubitz's home in the city. The co-pilot researched "on one hand medical treat- ment methods, and on the other hand informed him- self about types and ways of going about a suicide," prosecutors' spokesman Ralf Herrenbrueck said in a statement. "In addition, on at least one day, (Lubitz) concerned himself for several minutes with search terms about cockpit doors and their security precautions," he added. Prosecutors didn't spec- ify what medical treatment Lubitz was looking into and declined to disclose the in- dividual search terms that he used. They said personal correspondence and search terms on the tablet "support the conclusion that the ma- chine was used by the co-pi- lot in the relevant period." In Marseille, prosecu- tor Brice Robin underlined French investigators' con- viction that "he was alive until the moment of im- pact, we are nearly certain. ... Alive and conscious." He also said the co-pilot ap- pears to have acted repeat- edly to stop an excessive speed alarm from sound- ing. He said investigators had found 150 DNA profiles — matching the number of people aboard the plane — but it will take time to match them with DNA sam- ples provided by victims' families. Investigators hope the flight data recorder will re- veal more information on what happened to the plane and the co-pilot's actions at the controls. Robin said it was found by a gendarme buried on the side of a ra- vine that was "already ex- plored several times." The flight data recorder was "completely black- ened" as though it had been burned, but it was "possibly usable," Robin said. It cap- tures 25 hours of informa- tion on the position and condition of nearly every part of the plane. German prosecutors have said Lubitz's medical records from before he re- ceived his pilot's license re- ferred to "suicidal tenden- cies," but visits to doctors since then showed no re- cord of that or aggression toward others. Investigators also found torn-up notes from doctors excusing Lubitz from work, including one that would have kept him off work on the day of the crash. Earlier this week, Luf- thansa, Germanwings' par- ent company, said it knew six years ago that Lubitz had suffered from an epi- sode of "severe depression" before he finished his flight training. However, Germanwings, which hired Lubitz in Sep- tember 2013, said Thursday it had been unaware of the depressive episode. Prosecutors have said that they haven't found any sign of a physical ill- ness and have no evidence he told anyone what he was going to do. Also Thursday, Ger- many announced the cre- ation of an expert task force to examine what went wrong and con- sider whether changes are needed regarding cock- pit doors, how pilots pass medical evaluations and how companies recognize psychological problems in employees. France's air accident in- vestigation agency is al- ready examining cockpit entry and psychological screening procedures. The A320 is designed with safeguards to allow emergency entry into the cockpit if a pilot inside is unresponsive. But the over- ride code known to the crew doesn't go into effect if the person in the cockpit specif- ically denies entry. The impact of the crash shattered the plane into tiny pieces. Robin said that investigators have found and studied 2,854 body parts at the site. They also found 42 cell- phones in what Robin called a "very, very dam- aged" condition. No video or audio from the cellphones of those aboard the plane has been released publicly. However, a French reporter says he viewed video from one cell- phone video thanks to an intermediary close to the crash investigation, al- though he does not have a copy of it himself. Frederic Helbert, who reported on the video this week in the French maga- zine Paris-Match and the German tabloid Bild, told The Associated Press that it was shot from the back of the plane, so "you cannot see their faces, but you can hear them screaming and screaming." "No one is moving or get- ting up," he told the AP in Paris. "People understand something terrible is going to happen." FRANCE PLANE CRASH Germanwings co-pilot researched suicide, cockpit doors MINISTEREDEL'INTERIEU—YVESMALENFER Debris of the Germanwings passenger jet is seen at the crash site near Seyne-les-Alpes, France. MICHAEL MUELLER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Andreas Lubitz competes at the Airportrun in Hamburg, Germany, in 2009. HANI MOHAMMED — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A Houthi Shiite rebel carries his weapon as he joins others to protest against Saudi-led airstrikes, during a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on Wednesday. By Ahmed Al-Haj The Associated Press SANAA, YEMEN Al-Qa- ida militants traveling in convoys flying black ban- ners captured a major port city in southern Yemen on Thursday, seizing govern- ment buildings and free- ing inmates from a prison, including a top Saudi-born leader, security officials said. The fall of Mukalla — the capital of Yemen's larg- est province, Hadramawt — highlighted how al-Qaida is expanding its foothold in Yemen, taking advantage of the turmoil as a Saudi-led coalition backing the coun- try's beleaguered president tries to fend off a takeover by Shiite rebels. Mukalla's fall came as the rebels, known as Houthis, made dramatic advances in one of the main strongholds of the president's loyalists, the southern city of Aden. The rebels broke into the center of Aden and briefly captured a presidential pal- ace in the city. The rebels withdrew from the palace after rais- ing the Yemeni flag, but the move showed their contin- ued strength despite more than a week of heavy air- strikes by the Saudi-led co- alition. If the Houthis suc- ceed in capturing Aden, it would be a significant blow to the coalition, which has been planning to land ground troops in the city to allow the return of Pres- ident Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled the country last week. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the terror net- work's branch in Yemen is named, has been benefiting from the turmoil ever since theHouthisfirstsurgedfrom their northern strongholds last year to take over the cap- ital, Sanaa, and much of the north. The rebels are backed in the campaign by military and police forces loyal to Ha- di's predecessor, ousted auto- crat Ali Abdullah Saleh. Around the country, some Sunni tribal fighters have been making alliances with al-Qaida to fight the rebels, who adhere to the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam. But the capture of Mu- kalla was a startling ad- vance. The city lies 300 miles northeast of Aden along the Arabian Sea coast in large but sparsely popu- lated Hadramawt. The militants fanned out along major roads leading into Mukalla on Thursday and took over the city's pres- idential palace, government agencies and the local Cen- tral Bank branch. They tried to break open the bank's vault with hand grenades but failed, according to wit- nesses. The witnesses spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Militants on pickup trucks set up checkpoints across the city, sealing off entrances and exits, while residents were seen enter- ing the offices and looting electronic devices and files, the witnesses said. The al-Qaida fighters also freed about 300 in- mates from the city's main prison, including scores of militants, according to se- curity officials. Among those freed was Saudi-born Khaled Batrafi, a senior al-Qaida opera- tive believed to have mas- terminded past attacks, the officials said. Also freed were 90 death row inmates convicted for a host of criminal offences, according to activists in the city. Al-Qaida in Yemen captures a so ut he rn c it y, f re es i nm at es SOUTH ARABIA CONFLICT Select"Subscribe"tabinlowerrightcorner Complete information for automatic weekly delivery to your email inbox That's it! This FREE service made possible by the advertisers in TV Select Magazine Kindly patronize and thank them. Click on their ads online to access their websites! FREE online subscription to TV Select Magazine Digital edition emailed to you, every Saturday! 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