Reader's recipe: courgette loaf
More than 50 years since his wife discovered 'zucchini bread' on a school exchange trip to California, John Smail has kept this taste of the Golden State alive in Scotland.'
John Smail, 71, Selkirk, Scottish Borders
This recipe was brought back from San Bernardino, California, by my wife, Mary, after her year-long high school exchange trip in 1969. Her host mother was a wonderful baker and wrote out the recipe for Mary to take back to the UK. I have passed it on to friends all over the globe, including Sweden, New Zealand and Switzerland. The loaf won first prize in its section at our local agricultural show.
• 3 eggs• 180ml vegetable oil• 190g sugar• Two or three medium-sized courgettes, grated
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Wales Online
12 minutes ago
- Wales Online
UK-bound plane crashes after take-off with 244 people aboard
UK-bound plane crashes after take-off with 244 people aboard The flight was heading for London GUJARAT, INDIA - JUNE 12: Smoke rises after a plane crash shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India's western state of Gujarat on June 12, 2025. The crash occurred in the Meghaninagar area, according to a report by the Press Trust of India, citing local authorities. (Photo by Nandan Dave/Anadolu via Getty Images) A plane bound for the UK has crashed shortly after take-off. The flight was leaving India's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad heading for London Gatwick. A total of 53 British nationals were on board a Gatwick Airport-bound plane that appeared to explode when it crashed shortly after take-off, Air India has said. In a statement following the incident on Thursday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: 'The scenes emerging of a London-bound plane carrying many British nationals crashing in the Indian city of Ahmedabad are devastating.' He added he is being kept updated as the situation develops. The King said he is also being updated on the incident. Rescuers work at the site of an airplane that crashed in India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, Thursday, June12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki) Air India's chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran described the incident as a 'tragic accident' and a 'devastating event' and said emergency response teams are at the site. A video of the incident, obtained by local media, shows the aircraft flying over a residential area before crashing, creating what appears to be a large explosion. Article continues below Commons Leader Lucy Powell said the Government will provide 'all the support that it can' to those affected by the incident. Air India said the flight was departing from Ahmedabad Airport with 242 people onboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The airline said 169 passengers are Indian nationals, 53 are British, one is Canadian and seven are Portuguese. The Reuters news agency reported 217 adults and 11 children were on board the flight. In a statement, Mr Chandrasekaran said: 'With profound sorrow I confirm that Air India Flight 171 operating Ahmedabad London Gatwick was involved in a tragic accident today. 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.' He added: 'An emergency centre has been activated and support team have been set up for families seeking information.' Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, director general of India's directorate of civil aviation, told the Associated Press the crash happened in the Meghani Nagar area at 1.38pm local time (9.08am BST). Mr Kidwai said there were 232 passengers and 12 crew members onboard. It is the first crash involving a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 posted on social media platform X: 'We are following reports of a crash of Air India flight #AI171 from Ahmedabad to London. 'We received the last signal from the aircraft at 08:08:51 UTC (shortly before 9.09am BST), just seconds after take off. The aircraft involved is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with registration VT-ANB.' It added the signal from the aircraft was lost 'less than a minute after take off'. Air India was acquired by Tata Group from the Indian government in January 2022 after racking up billions of pounds of losses. The airline's UK operations are at Birmingham, Gatwick and Heathrow, with routes to a number of Indian cities such as Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. GUJARAT, INDIA - JUNE 12: Smoke rises after a plane crash shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India's western state of Gujarat on June 12, 2025. The crash occurred in the Meghaninagar area, according to a report by the Press Trust of India, citing local authorities. (Photo by Nandan Dave/Anadolu via Getty Images) Recent analysis by the PA news agency found it was the worst airline for delays to flights from UK airports last year, with planes taking off by an average of more than 45 minutes later than scheduled. The airline has gained a poor reputation for delays and cancellations in recent years, partly caused by a lack of funds to purchase spare aircraft parts, which led to some of its fleet being grounded. Article continues below The first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft involved in the crash was in December 2013. The plane was delivered to Air India during the following month.
Telegraph
40 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The miracle of seat 11A ... how did British passenger survive?
When Vishwash Kumar Ramesh reached his seat on Air India Flight 171, setting off from Ahmedabad to London, he may have been pleased about his window seat and extra leg room. Mr Ramesh was returning to his family home in Leicester after tending to his business in India and his ticket for seat 11A put him in the perennially enviable position of being next to a window, with enough space to stretch his legs. A member of the cabin crew would have sat opposite, facing him, during take-off. But this seat is not merely advantageous from a comfort perspective for a nine and a half hour flight, but also could have been pivotal in saving his life. Just after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner fell to Earth into a built-up area less than a minute after take-off, the estimated 60 tons of fuel went up in a plume of flame. His brother Nayan Kumar Ramesh told Sky News he video-called their father moments after the crash to say: 'I don't know how I'm alive.' Aviation experts in the business of assessing crashes consider this a 'non-survivable crash'. 'As far as this accident is concerned, I think it's miraculous that anyone survived because I think technically this crash is probably a non-survivable crash,' Prof Edwin Galea, director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) at the University of Greenwich, told The Telegraph. 'We still don't know enough about it, but a fully fuelled aircraft crashing into a built-up area, it's probably unlikely that we would expect to see any survivors from this. 'This is probably an unsurvivable crash a) because it's in a built-up area and b) because the damage to the fuselage would have been so severe. Plus the huge post-crash fire would make it unlikely. The fact that one person has survived, I think, is miraculous.' Prof Galea published a study in 2006 which found in survivable crashes people within five rows of an exit row were more likely to survive. Anyone sitting further than this from an emergency door was more likely to die than to live, should they survive the initial injuries of impact. There is, he says, no one seat on a plane in which to sit to ensure maximum safety. It is often said the rear of a plane is safer, for example, but the benefits of any one seat or another are so dependent on the nature of a crash, that this cannot hold as a rule of thumb. 'If you believe what they've said in the media, the survivor's seat is 11A and on the 787-8, that's right by the number two exit,' Prof Galea said. 'So he's got the seat as close as you could possibly be to an emergency exit. You can't be any closer. 'It's right on his side and he's actually in the A seat, which is the window seat. You could reach up and touch the door, you're that close to it.' The rear-facing seat of the cabin crew placed almost directly in front of Mr Ramesh is actually the safest seat in a plane, said the aviation safety expert, as it is more robust and has a full harness to limit excessive movement. These members of staff are trained to evacuate the full plane in 90 seconds as their primary job, with drinks and hospitality a supplementary skill. 'They operate the door, usually. So the way he would have evacuated is either going to be that the crew member managed to get the door open, and maybe they then died, or perhaps the passenger got the door open himself,' Prof Galea said. 'Or he didn't go out through a door. The fuselage might have been disrupted at that point and he just got out through a break in the fuselage.' But the 787-8 Dreamliner has eight exits, all attended with at least one member of the cabin crew. The other advantage of seat 11A is that it falls within the sturdy 'wing box' of a plane, which is its strongest area. 'The physically strongest part of the aircraft is the part of the fuselage where the wings are, called the wing box. It's where the wings joined to the fuselage. That's the strongest part of the aircraft because there's the most structure there,' Prof Galea added. 'And I believe seat 11A is just at the front of that very strong part of the aircraft. That may have been a factor again.' Prof John McDermid, Lloyd's Register chairman of safety at University of York, also said the choice of seat could have been vital as it is an over-wing seat which offers greater structural strength. 'Also, being by an exit door means you can get out quickly, which greatly increases the chance of survival when there is a fire,' he told The Telegraph. But, while Mr Ramesh had all of these factors going in his favour, perhaps the biggest is the advantage of luck. 'He also had a lot of good fortune,' Prof Galea said. 'Because why did he survive and 11B sitting right next to him didn't, or 11C or 12A? 'If he was not injured to the point where he couldn't self-evacuate then that is fairly miraculous, given the nature of this crash. I'm kind of staggered that anyone survived, let alone was in good enough shape to self-evacuate.'
Telegraph
40 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Prince of Wales: We can save Dartmoor from climate change
The Prince of Wales has launched a 'bold and ambitious' project to protect Dartmoor from the impact of climate change and return the land 'to its former glory'. He warned that Dartmoor's 'magnificent and complex ecosystem' was under threat, and that action was needed in order to allow it to thrive and keep it 'special' for future generations. The Prince's Duchy of Cornwall has joined forces with the Central Dartmoor Landscape Recovery project to propose a new approach to grazing, conservation and biodiversity. The Dartmoor Landscape Vision is designed as a 20-year road map and is the largest project of its kind in the UK. The Prince, who inherited the Duchy from his father on the death of Elizabeth II, braved heavy rain and wind to visit Tor Royal Bog, near Yelverton, Devon, on Thursday to speak to some of those working on the project. 'I'm keen to continue my father's work as well,' he said. 'For me it's about the impact, I want to see stuff actually happen. We've done the talking now, we've put the vision together, the design, now it's about the activation.' Pointing to an area of restored peatland, he added: 'Even though this is a small bit, we need to get more and more of this going on all around Dartmoor to bring it back to its former glory, while still keeping the farming and everything else going.' 'Magnificent and complex' The Prince wrote in the foreword to the Landscape Vision: 'Dartmoor is a magnificent and complex ecosystem – the balance between nature and people has evolved for thousands of years to shape the landscape we recognise today. 'To keep Dartmoor special, we must respond to the twin challenges of global warming and the requirement to restore nature, while ensuring the communities on Dartmoor can thrive. 'The Dartmoor Vision shows us what might be possible and how that might be achieved. It is bold and ambitious and something that I hope, by working together, can be delivered for not just the current generation but for generations to come.' During his visit to the area, the Prince met with Duchy tenant farmers David and Justine Colton at Tor Royal Bog, and spoke to members of the South West Peatland Partnership and Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England. As they chatted in the steady downpour, the Prince joked: 'I came to talk about the fires and a plan to re-wet peat!' Referring to the Landscape Vision, he said: 'To be able to bring everyone together, I think, is not only crucial to the whole thing but it sets a model for how it can be done elsewhere. And that's what I love doing. Whatever we do here, other people can follow what we're doing. 'So much of it is local leadership and collaboration. If you put those two together, things can be adapted.' Moving in the right direction He said not everyone believed the vision to restore the land within just two decades was possible. '(They said) '20 years, good luck, it's going to take longer than that!' These things take time, they really do. But at least if you set up a path and move in that direction, everyone will move in the same direction.' An eight-month study that covered 22,000 hectares of land found that average frost days are expected to halve over the next 40 years, while the chances of a dry summer will increase by 30 per cent. A 2C increase in temperatures could mean that Dartmoor would no longer be suitable for blanket peatland.
