"The copilot waited until the pilot had left and gone to the restroom and then put the aircraft in the dive," Hall said.
The group's in-house team of pilots has left the company.
Guy Derbez, who was mayor of Seyne-les-Alpes in the 1970s and 80s, said the revelations about the co-pilot had left people confused and struggling for explanations.
Initial investigations suggested the accident was deliberately caused by the captain shortly after his co-pilot had left the flight deck.
But the New York Times quoted an unnamed investigator as saying that one of the pilots had left the cockpit and had been unable to get back in.
Initial investigation results suggested the accident was deliberately carried out by the captain shortly after the first officer (also known as the co-pilot) had left the flight deck.
A total of 6,880 helicopter pilots have left the Army and Navy since 2007.
While the two men have been widely described as heroes by investigators and their fellow pilots, the crash has left much bitterness, both within the airline itself and directed at it from the outside.
Bar pilots bring a ship up the channels that lead from the sea, through the harbor and up near her pier, where the docking pilots take over; and they take over from the docking pilots after the ship has left her pier and guide her out to sea again.
Boeing's position has left many pilots angry and concerned.
