Dangers of the social media disaster chasers

At 9.08am BST the plane took off from Ahmedabad airport bound for London Gatwick. The cockpit gave a mayday call.

- Xavier Greenwood

The Flight AI171 reached only 650ft before rapidly losing altitude. After 30 seconds, the plane crashed into a hostel for medical students.

While rolling news websites shared initial statements and reported on response teams sifting through the wreckage, social media was way ahead. At 10.31am a journalist from an Indian news channel posted photographs on X of an unredacted flight manifest with the names, nationalities and passport numbers of most of the passengers. Three minutes later, the complete version was published by an Indian wire service.