French investigators sift through wreckage at the crash site. Photo: Reuters
Paris: As officials struggled to explain why a jet with 150 people on board crashed in relatively clear skies, an investigator said evidence from a cockpit voice recorder indicated one pilot left the cockpit before the plane's descent and was unable to get back in.
A senior military official involved in the investigation described "very smooth, very cool" conversation between the pilots during the early part of the flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf. Then the audio indicated that one of the pilots left the cockpit and could not re-enter.