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German police say they have found a ‘significant clue” in an apartment belonging to A320 Co-Pilot Andreas Lubitz, who is suspected of intentionally crashing a jet with 150 people into Alpine terrain; the unspecified item is not a suicide note, they say, Sputnik reports.

After a four-hour search of Lubitz's flat, which he is said to have shared with a girlfriend, German police say they have found a ‘significant clue.”

Officers refused to specify what exactly was discovered, but say it was not a suicide note. The item would be send for testing and police hope it might offer some explanation.

Law enforcement in the town of Montabaur, near the German city of Bonn, were searching the home of Andreas Lubitz for evidence that might explain why the co-pilot allegedly intentionally crashed Germanwings flight 9525 into an Alpine mountain, killing all 150 people on board, including himself.

Lubitz was believed to split his time between two addresses. Apart from the above property, another one is believed to be a house that he shared with his parents in the same town.

German detectives were also seen carrying evidence from this property — large blue bags and a computer.

According to French prosecutors, Lubitz is believed to have barricaded himself alone in the cockpit of Germanwings flight 9525 and apparently set it on course to crash into an Alpine mountain.

Audio from the cockpit voice recorder revealed that the captain had left the cockpit to use the restroom, according to prosecutors, and could not get back in.

The captain used an axe to try and force his way back in, German daily Bild said Friday, quoting security sources.

The cockpit flight recorder showed that the captain repeatedly knocked and tried to get back in as the plane went into its fatal descent.

A spokesman for Germanwings confirmed to AFP that an axe was on board the aircraft as such a tool is part of the safety equipment of an A320.