A state-owned Air India plane with 242 people on board (230 passengers and 12 crew) crashed minutes after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport in western India on Thursday. Flight AI171, heading to London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed into a densely populated area in ​​the residential neighborhood of Meghani Nagar shortly after starting its climb. One British passenger survived, according to local police, as reported by the Indian news agency ANI and the BBC.

Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik told the AP that residents of the neighborhood are likely among the victims. “We are trying to confirm the exact death toll,” he said. Reuters reported, citing rescue teams and local police, that the plane crashed into a doctors’ hostel and that at least 204 bodies, most of them charred, have been recovered from that building. Malik said the bodies could include both passengers and members of the public who were present at the crash site. Indian Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda had also previously confirmed that “many people” had died in the accident, but without providing further details.

The Foreign Ministry has appealed for patience. “Rescue operations are underway. We need a little more time to be able to release specific details,” a spokesperson said. “We have lost many people. We extend our sincere condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones.”

“Flight AI171, operating the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick route, suffered an incident after takeoff,” the airline said in a brief statement posted on the social media platform X. “We are gathering information and will provide updates as soon as possible,” it added.

The aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, took off at 1:38 p.m. local time (11:08 a.m. GMT). On board were 217 adults, 11 children, and two infants: 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian national. The injured are being transported to nearby hospitals, and the airline has set up a dedicated hotline for families and loved ones.

According to air traffic control, the pilot issued a mayday call just seconds after takeoff from runway 23. Shortly after, when the plane had reached an altitude of approximately 190 meters, contact with the aircraft was lost. The air traffic analysis and monitoring website FlightRadar24 reported that the last trace of the plane was recorded a few seconds after takeoff.

An airport spokesperson told news agencies that the airfield is currently closed and that all flights have been temporarily suspended. Bhupendra Patel, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, stated on social media that he had ordered authorities “to undertake immediate rescue and relief operations in response to the accident and to arrange for immediate treatment of the injured passengers.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his dismay over the accident via X. “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words,” he wrote. Modi added that he is in contact with ministers and authorities to coordinate assistance for those affected.

For its part, the British government has stated that “the United Kingdom is working with local authorities in India to urgently establish the facts and provide support to those involved.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the scenes as “devastating” in a social media post.

Images released by local media show the remains of the fuselage engulfed in flames and a thick column of black smoke rising near the airport. Dozens of people have been evacuated on stretchers and in ambulances, while emergency crews worked through the wreckage searching for survivors. The Director General of Civil Aviation, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, confirmed that all emergency protocols have been activated.

Aviation experts quoted by the BBC agree that the position of the plane’s flaps during takeoff could have been a determining factor. “The undercarriage is normally retracted within 10-15 seconds, and the flaps are then retracted over a period of 10-15 minutes,” aeronautical analyst Geoffrey Thomas explained to the British broadcaster. He specified that, however, in the videos, it appears that the tires were still activated, but the flaps were not. Former pilot Marco Chan, for his part, noted that “would point to potential human error if flaps aren’t set correctly.” However, he insisted that the video resolution is too low to confirm this with certainty.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, in service since 2011, is one of the American manufacturer’s most advanced long-haul models. Although its safety record is solid, Boeing has been in the spotlight of regulatory authorities in recent years due to manufacturing defects and delivery delays. Air India was the first airline in the country to operate this model, which has become a key part of its international fleet. This accident once again puts the technical reliability of the aircraft and maintenance protocols in commercial aviation under scrutiny.

This is the first major accident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, according to the statistical summary of commercial aviation accidents published by the manufacturer. There are currently more than 1,175 units in operation worldwide, operating around 2,100 flights daily. Analyst Thomas told CNN that, after reviewing images of the aircraft descending before impact, “it did not appear to be in an emergency situation […] It just sank and hit the ground in a ball of fire.”

In 2020, a plane crash involving Air India Express — the airline’s low-cost subsidiary — left 21 people dead and 127 injured when a plane from Dubai skidded off the runway and broke into two in the city of Calicut, southwest India. In 2010, another Air India plane, traveling to the same destination, crashed in Mangalore, also in southwest India, with 166 passengers on board. Only eight people survived.

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En Coventry se fabricaban Jaguars, Minis y los taxis negros de Londres, y allí hace 25 años nació Jake Stewart, quien se hizo ciclista, pese tanto peso del motor en su pueblo y a compartir casi nombre y apellido con Jackie, el piloto escocés loco de la F1. Sobre la bici, Jake es tan rápido como su no pariente del Tyrrell y esprinta extático en las rectas de Mâcon, junto al Saona, y cuando arranca ni el monstruoso Jonathan Milan, cerrado junto a las vallas, ni ningún otro, puede alcanzarle. Gana la etapa y aún le da tiempo a secarse el sudor, saludar a sus compañeros y volver a secarse el sudor antes de que atravesara la meta el líder de amarillo, Remco Evenepoel, que cruza la meta chupándose el índice derecho, que le sabe a sangre. Se ha caído en una rotonda unos centenares de metros antes y ese dedo parece que es el único mal que se ha hecho, poca cosa, un rasguñito, para un chaval de 25 años que ya ha rozado la muerte en tres caídas graves, y ha regresado más fuerte después de cada una de ellas, de cuando se rompió la pelvis en un puente de Lombardía, de cuando se estrelló en la caída terrible de la Itzulia del 24, de cuando se tragó, en diciembre pasado, la puerta de una furgoneta de correos en Bélgica.

Pasada la etapa calurosa por las colinas suaves del Beaujolais, aún tan verdes las uvas en las viñas, el viernes llega la primera etapa dura, la que acabará en el alto de la Cry, en Combloux, después de la cuesta de Domancy y la ciudad de Sallanches. Son nombres que pertenecen a la gran historia del ciclismo, lugares que figuraban en el Mundial de 1964, cuando un Eddy Merckx de 19 años se proclamó campeón del mundo amateur, y también en el del 80, el de la matanza organizada y llevada a cabo sin compasión por Bernard Hinault. Más recientemente, allí, en ambas subidas, se vivió la tragedia Pogacar en la contrarreloj en la que Vingegaard se aseguró el Tour del 23.

Antes de fabricarse nada, en Coventry, corazón de la metalurgia británica, se hacían máquinas de coser, y en los mismos talleres, antes del siglo XX aún, se inventó la bici con cadena, ruedas iguales y cuadro de doble triángulo. La manufacturaba la Rover antes de lanzarse a fabricar todoterrenos rígidos y duros, cuando en Coventry había más de 400 fábricas de bicicletas, más que en ninguna otra ciudad del mundo. La revolución industrial se inició con una locomotora y el ferrocarril, y en Catesby, en el túnel en desuso de una vía muerta entre Coventry y Birmingham convergen en el siglo XXI, coches, bicis, tecnología y futuro. En el techo de la galería cerrada, ni una gota de viento, recta, recta, 0,4% de pendiente, asfalto liso, liso, e iluminado, no vuelan murciélagos. Es un túnel del viento natural en el que se mide el aerodinamismo de prototipos en movimiento, no fijos ante un ventilador. Dan Bigham, el mago del aerodinamismo del Red Bull, mide los efectos de la velocidad en los calcetines y los botines de Florian Lipowitz, su líder en la Dauphiné, y seguramente todos los ingenieros que por allí pasen aplaudirían la bicicleta que hace volar a Jake Stewart en la superficie, una Factor fabricada no muy lejos, en Norfolk, como los F1, con una horquilla ancha y fina como las de las bicis de pista y un manillar en V, tan parecido a la mariposa de la Colnago Y de Pogacar.

Las raíces del ciclismo son fuertes. Nunca mueren. Las hacen reverdecer los ciclistas, su pasión, un deseo de redención que el fin de semana decisivo de la Dauphiné, en Saboya y los Alpes, enfrentará a Pogacar, que no parece él mismo, a Vingegaard, que tiene que asustar a todos tras un año doliente, y a Evenepoel, al que nadie parece tomar en serio en la montaña.

HARROWING new revelations have emerged about the final hours of British teenager Jay Slater, who died in Tenerife last June.

Witnesses told the podcast Jay Slater The Investigation that the 19-year-old armed himself with kitchen knives after allegedly stealing ketamine from a convicted drug dealer.

The bombshell allegations come from celebrity detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who has spent months investigating the case and managed to track down key witnesses that Spanish police failed to locate for the coroner’s inquest.

The Daily Mail reports that Williams-Thomas’s investigation, which will be released as a two-part podcast this week, found Jay had left an Airbnb in the remote village of Masca carrying two kitchen knives in his waistband after taking a bag of ketamine belonging to Ayub Qassim.

READ MORE: British TV detective claims to know ‘real reason’ doomed Jay Slater left his Airbnb in Spain’s Tenerife

The 31-year-old, who is a convicted drug dealer, was the last person to see the apprentice bricklayer alive.

The shocking claims were made by Qassim himself, who told Williams-Thomas that Jay had ‘walked away because he’s f***ed off with the ket and he went missing’ after taking his ketamine supply.

For the first time since the tragedy, Jay’s friend Lucy Law has also spoken out about their final phone conversation, revealing that Jay told her he was ‘on a mission’ and couldn’t return to his accommodation because he had ‘taken two kitchen knives down his pants in case anything kicks off.’

Law, who had been holidaying with Jay in Tenerife, failed to attend last month’s inquest after police were unable to trace her.

Her parents later told reporters they were unaware she was required to give evidence until officers arrived at their home on the day of the hearing looking for her.

The Lancashire teenager had been on the Spanish island attending the NRG music festival when he vanished on June 17, sparking one of the biggest manhunts in Tenerife’s history. 

His body was eventually found a month later at the bottom of a remote ravine with severe head injuries.

Williams-Thomas’s investigation suggests Jay, who was heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol, fled the Airbnb in fear of repercussions after stealing the ketamine. 

The detective believes this explains why Jay armed himself with knives and told Lucy he couldn’t return to where he was staying.

READ MORE: Jay Slater’s cause of death is confirmed after body of British teen is returned from Spain: Family of bricklayer, 19, prepare for his funeral

Qassim, who served nine years in prison after being convicted in 2015 for his role in flooding Cardiff’s streets with Class A drugs, had been expected to give evidence at Jay’s inquest last month but could not be traced by authorities.

The coroner expressed exasperation that police had been unable to locate key witnesses, leading to the inquest being adjourned. 

Williams-Thomas has now shared his findings with Spanish police and Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan, who he describes as ‘heartbroken’ by the revelations.

During the investigation, Williams-Thomas uncovered that Jay had been using a cocktail of drugs that left him behaving erratically on the night he disappeared. 

Traces of cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine were later found in his body during the post-mortem examination.

The detective also revealed that Jay had sent messages claiming he had stolen an expensive watch and was trying to sell it for £10,000, telling a friend: “Yes cuz ended up getting thrown out of there me with 2 Mali kids just took an AP off some xxxx on way to sell it for 10 quid.”

READ MORE: Human remains found in remote area of Tenerife are believed to be that of missing British teenager Jay Slater

Jay’s final hours began after he accompanied Qassim and another man back to their Airbnb following the music festival. 

He later attempted to walk back to his hotel in Playa de las Americas, a journey that would have taken 10 hours through treacherous mountain terrain under the scorching sun.

His last phone calls were to Lucy Law and friend Bradley Hargreaves, during which he said he was lost, his phone was dying, and he was walking across rough, stony ground.

Williams-Thomas concluded that Jay’s death was ‘a tragic accident with no third party involvement,’ but believes the new evidence provides crucial context about why the teenager left the Airbnb so suddenly and why he felt the need to arm himself.

READ MORE: Autopsy confirms that body found on Monday in Spain’s Tenerife is that of missing Lancashire teenager Jay Slater

Jay’s mother Debbie had initially asked Williams-Thomas not to release the information about the ketamine theft, concerned it would bring further shame on the family. 

However, the detective decided to make the findings public ahead of the rescheduled inquest to ensure they are properly investigated.

Qassim has since responded on social media, appearing to criticise Williams-Thomas and suggesting people were ‘profiting from their grief.’

He has indicated he will attend the next inquest hearing.

The case attracted massive attention on social media, with numerous conspiracy theories circulating on platforms like TikTok, which Jay’s mother had previously slammed as distressing and outlandish.

The inquest is expected to resume at a later date, with authorities hoping the new witness testimony will finally provide answers about the tragic circumstances surrounding the teenager’s death on the Spanish island.