(Bloomberg) -- The Germanwings pilot who investigators say crashed his plane into a French mountain in March repeatedly set the jet on collision course with the ground on a flight earlier that day in what may have been a dry run for his suicide bid.

Data from the morning flight shows Andreas Lubitz briefly set the Airbus Group NV A320 jet to descend to 100 feet on five occasions when his captain left the cockpit before returning it to cruise mode, France’s air-accident investigator said May 6.

“I can’t know what was in the pilot’s head,” BEA Director Remi Jouty said as he presented a preliminary report on the March 24 crash. “All we can do is say that, several times, he manipulated the button to put in a minimum value.”