Here's what we know about the co-pilot who crashed Germanwings flight 9525

The co-pilot of the downed Germanwings Airbus 320 who "intentionally" crashed the plane, according to French officials, has been identified as 28-year-old German national Andreas Lubitz.

Lubitz was from Montabaur, in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany, and had logged 630 flight hours before co-piloting the doomed aircraft.

Lubitz joined Germanwings in September 2013 after training at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Bremen, according to Lufthansa officials, and was praised by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for "meeting or exceeding the high educational, licensing and medical standards established by the FAA," the Aviation Business Gazette reported in 2013.

The young pilot's evident skills landed him a spot in the prestigious FAA Airmen Certification Database.

Lubitz showed no signs of any psychological problems and passed all of the medical tests administered during his training, a Germanwings official said.

He was a member of the LSC flight club, which posted a death notice on its website naming him, according to the Wall Street Journal: “Andreas became a member of the club as a youth to fulfill his dream of flying,” it said.

"It was his dream fulfilled, the dream he so dearly for with his life.  The members of the LSC Westerwald mourn Andreas and the other 149 victims of the disaster. Our deepest sympathy goes out to the victims of all nationalities."

Lubitz reportedly lived with his parents in Montabaur and kept a flat in Duesseldorf where the doomed Germanwings flight from Barcelona was bound, Montabaur mayor Gabriele Wieland told national news agency, DPA. Public records show Lubitz was also "an avid runner who often took part in local races," the Straits Times reported.

Police deployed outside the Montabaur, #Germany home of Andreas Lubitz, the pilot who crashed the #Germanwings plane pic.twitter.com/DJ9OysJBZJ

— Auskar Surbakti (@AuskarSurbakti) March 26, 2015
Officials said Thursday that Lubitz showed a "willingness to destroy this plane," the Daily Beast reports, and he could reportedly be heard breathing until the plane crashed, ruling out any kind of medical emergency that may have left him incapacitated.

Lubitz apparently locked the pilot out of the cockpit before deliberately pushing the button to start the plane's descent.

The revelation that Lubitz intentionally downed the plane may answer one of investigators' most pressing questions, including why air traffic controllers were unable to make contact with the plane during the flight's final two minutes, and why the plane made a "very long descent at normal speed without any communications, though the weather was absolutely clear."

Officials are currently investigating Lubitz's background, but a German security official has said there are no indications that Lubitz had any connections to terrorism, according to the NBC, and Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann has said that Lubitz was competent and '100% fit' in all areas.

The more likely explanation seems to be that Lubitz was suicidal.

"While incredibly rare for a pilot to kill himself — and everyone else on a plane — there is both national and international precedent for what experts call 'aircraft-assisted pilot suicides,'” Terrence McCoy wrote in the Washington Post. "According to Federal Aviation Administration data, 24 American pilots have killed themselves while flying their planes in the last two decades."