Contractor in Heathrow migrant escape ‘lost another deportee'
The contractor at the centre of a migrant escape at Heathrow airport 'lost' another deportee in Istanbul, a former officer has claimed.
Gary Costin, a former deportee custody officer with the contractor Mitie, said the escape attempt at Heathrow was not an isolated case, and cited four other examples of deportees attempting to abscond in the past three years.
On Sunday, an illegal migrant about to be deported back to India was filmed being chased across the airport tarmac pursued by security officers before being caught.
He was being escorted by contractors Mitie Care and Custody on behalf of the Home Office.
Mr Costin, who was sacked by Mitie after sharing a Reform MP's post, claimed: 'Subcontractors who were working for Mitie taking people back to Somalia lost this individual in Turkey.
'I don't believe he has ever been found. He managed to escape through a hole in the roof, in the toilet or smoking area at Istanbul airport.'
Speaking on Talk Radio, he also alleged another deportee on a courtroom visit for a hearing managed to escape out of a window while a third pushed past escorts on an air bridge crowded with passengers at Heathrow before he was subsequently found in a lavatory.
A fourth managed to smash a window in the back of a van in Heathrow before evading two escorts, claimed Mr Costin. A team leader managed to detain him.
He alleged that the 'gene pool' of good escorts had been watered down by an intensive recruitment campaign by Mitie.
'Training then was done by inexperienced staff who hadn't been in the job five minutes. And it was like the blind leading the blind,' he said.
He alleged a basic lack of fitness among officers.
'The fitness of 50 per cent of the staff, I would say, is questionable, and there is no fitness test whatsoever. There were thoughts and talk about bringing fitness tests in, but this didn't happen because they realised they would lose too many staff because of this,' he said.
Mitie said it could not comment on individual operations but sources maintained the incident at Heathrow airport on Sunday was extremely rare and was being fully investigated.
'We are proud of the high standards and professional conduct that our care and custody colleagues exhibit every day, often in very challenging circumstances, when carrying out escorting services,' said a source.
'All of our officers have undergone an extensive training programme including the Home Office manual for escorting safely training course – specialist training to ensure escorts have all the skills required to safely remove people from the country – as well as having annual refreshers.'
Mr Costin was sacked after sharing a post on X by then Reform leader Richard Tice. It commented on a GB News article headlined 'Home Office Islamic Network aimed to recruit Muslim staff and 'influence policymakers' from the inside'.
The piece pointed to Home Office documents showing that a group of more than 700 civil servants aimed to make policy more inclusive of Muslim needs.
Mr Costin, who had spent 15 years working for government contractors G4S and Mitie, forwarded a screenshot of Tice's post, which had already been captioned 'Uh oh'.
The 57-year-old was suspended in April last year and later sacked, although he had not added any of his own comments when sending the message to a WhatsApp group.
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'Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event. At this moment, our primary focus is on supporting all the affected people and their families. 'We are doing everything in our power to assist the emergency response teams at the site and to provide all necessary support and care to those impacted.' Gatwick Airport subsequently confirmed the flight that was due to land at 18:25 today had crashed on departure. Aviation expert Julian Bray told MailOnline: 'It's a Boeing Dreamliner that has gone down - not certain whether they've managed to get anybody off the plane. 'If it has indeed crash-landed and they can deploy the chutes out then they should be able to get people off in 90 seconds. I am aware there are fire appliances in attendance - this is a major incident. 'It is very disappointing that it is a Dreamliner as it is a state-of-the-art Boeing. We cannot rule out security issues. But this is all speculation on my part.' Weather conditions were calm at the time of the accident with clear skies and a windspeed of just seven knots, or eight miles per hour. Indian news agency ANI reported police sources had confirmed 242 people were on board the flight. India's aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said in a statement: 'Shocked and devastated to learn about the flight crash in Ahmedabad. We are on highest alert. 'I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action. 'Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site. My thoughts and prayers are with all those on board and their families.' The Director General of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is en route to the site of the incident with a team of investigators, according to the Times of India. Air India shared a brief statement in the wake of the disaster, writing on X: 'Flight AI171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident today, 12 June 2025. 'At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates at the earliest.' Ahmedabad is the main city in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat. Ahmedabad airport said it had suspended all flight operations with immediate effect following the incident this morning. The flight reportedly reached an altitude of just 625 feet before it began to descend, according to flight tracking service Flightradar 24, which declared the plane's transponder signal dropped just seconds after it left the runway Shocked residents are seen standing close to the scene as firefighters work to extinguish flames Shocking images shared to social media showed a huge trail of smoke emanating from the crash site near the international airport this morning Thick plumes of black smoke are seen rising from the site of the crash Smoke trails at the scene of the crash The 787 Dreamliner involved in today's crash is a widebody, twin-engine plane. It is believed to be the first ever of a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The last fatal plane crash in India was in 2020 and involved Air India Express, the airline's low-cost arm. The airline's Boeing-737 overshot a 'table-top' runway at Kozhikode International Airport in southern India. The plane skidded off the runway, plunging into a valley and crashing nose-first into the ground. Twenty-one people were killed in that crash. The formerly state-owned Air India was taken over by Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and merged with Vistara - a joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines – in 2024. Tata said an emergency centre had been activated and a support team set up for families seeking information. Today's tragedy is the latest in a string of disasters involving Boeing jets and comes just six months after a 737 crashed in South Korea, killing 179. In October 2018, Boeing's Lion Air flight 610 plunged into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, in Indonesia killing all 189 people on board. Then, in March 2019, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed minutes after departing Addis Ababa, resulting in the deaths of 157 passengers and crew. Shares of planemaker Boeing fell 8% in premarket US trading following today's incident. Boeing said in a statement it was aware of initial reports and was working to gather more information.
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
Below the eerily intact tail fin, crumpled metal and bodies block the streets
After the crash came scenes of sheer horror and devastation; a hellish, chaotic and blackened tableau of charred body parts. Local witnesses said they saw the jet explode on impact right after take-off, about a runway's length away from Ahmedabad airport. Plumes of smoke could be seen for miles around. Twisted metal and rubble rained down onto the streets around a building where the tail of the plane ended up wedged. 'There was smoke everywhere, and the stench was overwhelming,' one witness told The Telegraph. Severed limbs and body parts were visible in several places as locals joined the rescue efforts. The narrow road near the crash site made it difficult for vehicles to pass. Fire engines and ambulances were parked in an adjacent compound as more emergency personnel arrived. Some 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian citizen were on board. Among the victims are 11 children. Vijay Rupani, the former Gujarat chief minister was also reportedly killed. While most of the Boeing Dreamliner lay smashed and scattered surrounded by green bushes in the urban Meghani area, the jet's tail remained intact, eerily wedged into the side of a building thought to be a hostel for the local doctors and medical students. People inside the building were having lunch in a canteen before the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner struck. Photos sent from the jet as it took off showed passengers checking their phones and settling down for a long-haul flight. But then the familiar sound of take-off turned to a terrifying roar as the Air India flight bound for London Gatwick halted its ascent and inexplicably plummeted, smashing into the building. Bhavna More, an employee of the nearby Civil Supply Corporation, was among the first to hear the impact. 'There was a massive sound,' she said. 'I came outside and saw thick smoke rising. People were running towards the fire. Then a second explosion occurred.' Dashrathbhai Leua, a Gujarat resident, also described the moment of impact: 'We heard a loud blast. It felt like it came from just a minute away. About ten of us ran toward the site, and then we heard another explosion. 'We couldn't get close because the flames were too intense. People started calling for ambulances. We helped lift several bodies onto the vehicles.' Many victims could not be reached because of the intensity of the fire – the plane was full of fuel, ready for the journey to Gatwick. Firemen doused the blazing building with water, but it took hours for emergency crews to finally bring the flames under control near the wreckage. Even then, a small fire continued to smoulder on a nearby tree, where part of the aircraft's wing had landed. Somehow, an entire rubber wheel had remained in one piece amongst the blackened rubble and fallen trees. Police personnel and staff from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation arrived in vehicles loaded with white cloth. The quantity was so large that local residents and several journalists began assisting in unloading and distributing the material. One by one, bodies were placed in ambulances and taken away. Meanwhile, at least 15 trucks and bulldozers were brought in to begin clearing the debris of the aircraft and the collapsed building. Outside the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, where a trauma centre had been hastily set up, tense and grief-stricken relatives gathered, desperate for any word on their loved ones following the crash. Authorities initially said there were 'no survivors' from the flight, as the injured on the ground were rushed to emergency wards. Some who arrived looked terribly burned. One British man, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from London, was found alive. A man in his late forties broke down near the hospital gates, pleading with officials to let him through. 'My sister and brother-in-law were on the flight. Their seats 110 and 111 were confirmed,' he said. 'Our niece called from London to say 'Mumma and Papa were on the plane.' We're from Naroda and have been moving from one checkpoint to another for over an hour and a half. No one is letting us enter the hospital or even wait nearby. We haven't come here for a picnic, we've lost our family.' Mahendra Vasandiya, 65, another relative of passengers on board, stood quietly among the crowd. 'My younger brother and his wife were travelling to London to see their daughter,' he said. 'I still have no information about them. No one is telling us anything.' Nearby, a woman clutched her phone, struggling to hold back tears. 'My sister-in-law and her husband were on that plane,' she said. 'Their daughter called me in tears from the UK to say they were coming to visit her. I didn't even know they were flying today.'
