Updated 4.15pm: An ex-girlfriend of the co-pilot who crashed a Germanwings plane - killing all 150 people on board - says he had planned his place in history.

Andreas Lubitz had hidden a sick note declaring him unfit to work on the day of the disaster before boarding the plane and crashing it into a mountain in the French Alps.

According to German newspaper Bild, an ex-girlfriend of Lubitz, said he had told her last year: "One day I will do something that will change the whole system, and then all will know my name and remember it."

Germanwings is offering financial assistance to the families of the victims of this week's plane crash.

They will initially hand over 50,000 euros per passenger.

This is separate to the compensation the airline will likely have to pay.

Meantime prosecutors now say the co-pilot, who flew the plane into the French Alps, hid a serious illness from his employer.

A search of his home has found torn-up sick leave notes.

One declares him unfit to work on the day of the crash.

The tragedy has prompted a shake-up of safety rules, with several airlines announcing a new policy requiring there always be two people in the cockpit and the UN world aviation body stressing that all pilots must have regular mental and physical check-ups.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the findings about Lubitz added an "absolutely unimaginable dimension" to the tragedy, in which most victims were German and Spanish nationals.

Among the dead were two Australians, Melbourne nurse Carol Friday and her son Greig.

In the northwestern German town of Haltern, which lost 16 students and two teachers who were returning from a school exchange, the revelations prompted shock and rage.

The principal of the school, Ulrich Wessel, said "what makes all of us so angry (is) that a suicide can lead to the deaths of 149 other people."

Meanwhile in Montabaur, Mayor Edmund Schaaf urged reporters to show restraint with Lubitz's parents, a banker and a church organist, who live in a handsome home on a leafy, quiet street.

"Regardless of whether the accusations against the co-pilot are true, we sympathise with his family and ask the media to be considerate," he said.

Recovery operations at the crash site are ongoing, with French officials trying to find body parts and evidence. A second black box flight data recorder has not yet been recovered.