Andreas Lubitz contacted dozens of doctors before crashing Germanwings flight into French Alps

A state prosecutor says a co-pilot with a history of depression who crashed a Germanwings airliner into the French Alps had reached out to dozens of doctors ahead of the disaster, a revelation that suggests that Andreas Lubitz was seeking advice about an undisclosed ailment.

Meanwhile, families of those killed in the crash received long-awaited news that they will start receiving bodies next week.

Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin, who is leading a criminal investigation into the March 24 crash that killed all 150 people on board Germanwings Flight 9525, said he has received information from foreign counterparts and is going over it before a meeting with victims' relatives in Paris next week.

In that closed-door meeting at the French Foreign Ministry on June 11, Robin will discuss his investigation and efforts to reduce administrative delays in handing over the victims' remains to grieving families, his office said on Friday. Those remains are still in Marseille, frustrating some of the families.

Investigators say Lubitz intentionally crashed the jet after locking the pilot out of the cockpit. German prosecutors have said that in the week before the crash, he spent time online researching suicide methods and cockpit door security - the earliest evidence of a premeditated act.

Robin said Lubitz had also reached out to dozens of doctors in the period before the crash. That suggests Lubitz was desperate to find an explanation for some mental or physical ailment, even as he researched ways of killing himself and others.

Robin would not address the question of what symptoms Lubitz was assessing. Germanwings and parent company Lufthansa had no comment on Friday on the finding, citing the ongoing investigation.