Father of co-pilot said to be 'devastated'

German media have reported that Lubitz had received prolonged treatment starting in 2008 for a "serious depressive episode". Photo / Getty Images News

The father of the Germanwings co-pilot who allegedly deliberately crashed his plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board, is "devastated, completely shattered" by his son's act, a French official who spoke to him said.

"He is carrying on his back the entire weight of the drama. He is a man whose life has broken down," said Bernard Bartolini, the mayor of Prads-Haute-Bléone, a small town near the site of the crash.

The parents of Andreas Lubitz have not spoken in public since the crash on Tuesday. They were questioned by French police during their stay in France and German police were due to talk them when they returned to Germany.a

Mr Bartolini said he met them when they visited the crash site and attended a memorial ceremony nearby on Thursday along with families of the passengers and crew who died.

"He (the father) is a man whose life is in ruins. I felt incredibly sorry for him as he expressed all his emotion, he expressed his emotion because he has lost a loved one, but also because his son is perhaps the (cause) of all this tragedy," he told BFM news channel.

"I have great respect for this man who despite himself is at the centre of a tragedy that he did not seek," said Mr Bartolini.

Hours before Thursday's memorial ceremony, French prosecutors announced that they believe Lubitz deliberately slammed the Germanwings flight into a mountain on Tuesday.

Officers removed bags of items that included a computer from the family home.

Lubitz also had an apartment in Dusseldorf, which was the destination of the doomed Germanwings flight that had departed from Barcelona.

Dusseldorf prosecutors say Lubitz hid evidence of an illness from his employers - including a torn-up doctor's note that would have kept him off work the day authorities say he crashed Flight 9525.

Searches conducted at Lubitz's homes in Duesseldorf and in Montabaur turned up documents pointing to "an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment," but no suicide note was found.

German media have reported that Lubitz had received prolonged treatment starting in 2008 for a "serious depressive episode".