Month: March 2025

Eyes across the world were glued to screens as the highly awaited return of the astronauts finally came, with re-entry, parachute deployment, and splashdown going smoothly after a 17-hour journey back to the surface.

The pair were originally sent up to the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024 for an eight-day mission, but following some technical issues to their Boeing Starliner spacecraft, they were forced to stay on the ISS.

As the capsule was sent back was sent back to Earth unmanned, there was no set date for the astronauts’ return.

After several delays, a date of 12 March was set for their return mission to launch, in a joint venture between NASA and SpaceX.

Thousands watched on as NASA streamed the Space-9 Crew’s re-entry to Earth, and the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s subsequent splash down took place off the eastern coast of the US.

The splashdown took place off the coast of Florida at 21:57 GMT.

Why have the astronauts been in space for so long?

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore arrived at the ISS on 6 June after their spacecraft ran into some issues – but why were they left in space for up to three quarters of a year?

While the pair have remained adamant that they weren’t ‘stranded’, there is a reason behind their delayed return.

NASA’s Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox explained in a teleconference last Friday: “The SpaceX folks helped us with a lot of options for how we would bring Butch and Suni home on Dragon in a contingency.”

He revealed there were ‘always options’ when it came to adding missions or bringing a capsule back earlier then planned.

Bowersox added: “But we ruled them out pretty quickly just based on how much money we’ve got in our budget, and the importance of keeping crews on the International Space Station,”

“They’re an important part of maintaining the station,” he said.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s involvement

While Musk may look like the hero here, providing a SpaceX capsule to bring the astronauts home, the businessman has, together with President Donald Trump, blamed the delay of Williams’ and Wilmore’s return on the Biden administration.

The Tesla CEO even claimed that he offered to bring them home earlier, but was shut down by the previous US leader.

While the astronauts denied any knowledge of this, the Crew-9 spacecraft arrived on Saturday (15 March) with four other astronauts, taking over duties on the ISS.

Trump previously claimed to reporters in the Oval Office: “Biden left them up there,

“We have two astronauts that are stuck in space. I have asked Elon (Musk), I said, ‘Do me a favour. Can you get them out?’ He said, ‘Yes.’

“He is preparing to go up, I think in two weeks,” he said at the time.

Trump then addressed the astronauts, saying: “We love you, and we’re coming up to get you. And you shouldn’t have been up there so long.”

What health effects can the astronauts expect to face?

It is known that the astronauts haven’t needed to use their muscles in space due to the lack of gravity, causing atrophy.

NASA state that weight-bearing bones lose an average of ‘1% to 1.5% of mineral density per month during spaceflight’.

But that’s not the only health issue the pair will face.

The changes to the body continue, as medical assessments taken from returning astronaut Scott Kelly showed a decrease in speed and accuracy of his cognitive performance, a change in gut bacteria, weight loss and potential DNA damage from exposure to radiation.

Astrophysicist Alan Duffy also revealed to The Guardian that being in space for a long period of time can make someone feel like they’ve got a ‘constant cold’.

This is because fluid builds up in the astronauts head and doesn’t drain properly, though apparently the impairment to smell is a blessing in disguise.

Rumour has it, the ISS is said to have a particular smell.

Graham has been getting worldwide attention for his role as Eddie Miller in the new Netflix series, Adolescence, a series that follows a teenage boy who has been accused of murdering a classmate, and the turmoil that his family has to endure as a result.

If that wasn’t gripping enough, each of the TV show’s four episodes, each an hour long, were impressively shot in one continuous take.

The streaming platform even revealed which takes were used for each episode, with the second take of the first episode being used, as well as takes 13, 11, and 16 of the following three episodes being released.

But what made the show the most watched in the world in the past week was the performance from the actors, with Graham and child actor Owen Cooper gaining plaudits for their performances.

Graham has previously spoken about the emotional connection he’s had with the show, something that he has had with past projects.

The British actor’s breakthrough role came as Combo in the This Is England franchise, as he first portrayed the racist skinhead in the 2006 film.

He’s come a long way since then, but he formed a special connection to those in the film, and even to the character, as he explained in a 2015 interview.

Speaking to Channel 4 after reprising his role as Combo for This Is England ’90 – one of three This Is England sequel series – the 51-year-old admitted that it’s ‘the role that changed my life’, saying that it was ‘a wonderful gift’ to play the character.

When Graham was asked about the difficulty of emotional scenes – some of which included elements of racism and violence – he spoke about ‘trust on set’ and being ready to ‘open up little bits of yourself’.

“Without sounding too w*nky, you have to show bits of your soul,” he admitted.

However, Graham admitted that some of these difficult scenes – one of which saw Combo attack Milky in the 2006 film – can really bring out his emotions, adding: “If I’m really honest, there’s been many a time when I’ve gone back to my hotel room and phoned Hannah, my wife, and been in tears.

“And she’ll say ‘It’s okay, it’s only acting’. But sometimes you have to go to that level, in order to play the truth.”

He said that he would then try to play football or video games to get his mind off it, and admitted: “I’m very blessed, I’ve got Hannah and two beautiful children to help me with stuff like that.”

Speaking about how he would prepare for heavy scenes in the 2015 mini-series, Graham explained: “You try and play the truth in any situation, and Shane (Meadows) creates the environment for that.

“You talk about it, spend a lot of time analysing the scene.”

Adolescence follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller – portrayed by Owen Cooper in his first ever acting role – who is arrested after a teenage girl from his school is murdered.

Stephen Graham plays the boy’s father Eddie Miller, while Top Boy star Ashley Walters takes on the role of detective inspector Luke Bascombe.

Each of the four episodes were done in one single take – in the same way as the 2021 film Boiling Point – and writer Jack Thorne has explained how this impacted the storyline.

On why we didn’t find out what happened to Jamie, he told 5Live: “As a writer you have to think about corridors, you have to think about staircases, you have to think about all of those technical things.

“You also can’t tell all the story. So you are telling an incomplete story, because there is only so much you can see in an hour.

“So Jamie’s legal process, anything that the family is doing in terms of mourning the loss of Katie – any of these things you can’t cut to. And so you are sort of stuck in something and that forces you to be partial, and it forces you to be incomplete.

“I think that causes the audience to lean forward because they know they are not going to get all of the story. They have got to work.”

Viewers and fellow parents have been raving about the series on X, as one person tweeted: “This four part series called Adolescence on ⁦⁦@netflix is totally brilliant.

“The cast, production and filming are amazing and is one of the best things I have ever seen on TV. This must win every award going. BRILLIANT.”

Another added: “I’m not the first one to say this but #Adolescence from #Netflix redefines what truly great series can achieve. It defies the regular 3 act structure of cause and effect and plunges you deeply into the minds of the characters and allows you to reflect upon yourself. It’s next level storytelling. Watch it.”

“Watched Adolescence on Netflix and it literally blew my mind,” a third wrote. “Being a dad of a 14 year old, I can understand the challenges both the parents and kids face. But the way they have handled the series… I would recommend every parent to watch it.

“Not to mention the awesome continuous shots that you get throughout the series.

“Every actor has put their soul in the series and never fail to bring in the intensity and goosebumps where it’s meant to be… totally worth a watch.”

Weeks after Trump’s explosive White House meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the US president engaged in a 90-minute phone call with Russia’s Putin to broach the topic of a potential ceasefire and end to the war in Ukraine.

It was three years in February since Putin made the decision to launch a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, with around 18% of the Eastern European country’s territory believed to be occupied by Russia.

Since taking office in January, President Trump has pursued securing peace between the two nations by whatever means necessary — even going as far as temporarily pausing military aid and foreign intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Following the conversation between Trump and Putin, the White House released the takeaways from the discussion, which include Russia agreeing to pause military strikes on Ukraines energy and infrastructure – although Putin rejected a proposal for an immediate ceasefire.

“Today, President Trump and President Putin spoke about the need for peace and a ceasefire in the Ukraine war. Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace,” the transcript read.

Key takeaways from Trump and Putin’s conversation include beginning with an ‘energy and infrastructure ceasefire’, before moving onto negotiations for the ‘implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace’.

“These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East. The leaders spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation to prevent future conflicts,” the transcript continued.

The White House transcript went on to add that both Trump and Putin had also discussed the possibility of ‘improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia’.

“The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people,” it added. “This conflict should never have started and should have been ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts.”

The Kremlin has also released a statement of key points from the discussion, including calls for a ‘complete cessation’ of military intelligence and foreign aid to Ukraine.

Russia also stated that a swap of 175 prisoners on each side of the war would take place, with a further gravely wounded Ukrainian soldiers to be released as a ‘as a gesture of goodwill’.

Most of us are guilty of spending our weekdays dreaming about quitting the rat race and finding an alternate way to bring in the cash – although it’s unlikely to become a reality anytime soon.

But for Megan Healey, she was able to make this dream a reality and now earns a pretty hefty salary while only working three days a week.

Making the switch from the 9-5 grind to managing an empire of vending machines didn’t come out of nowhere for Megan, with the former finance worker having a long history of getting in trouble at school for selling snacks to her classmates.

This means that owning vending machines is a natural progression for the 26-year-old. She also spent around nine months researching the business venture, making sure she knew everything there was to know about vending machines before purchasing her first one on eBay for £700 in 2022.

Megan now makes thousands a month from the venture – so how did she get there?

“I thought (it) would be a semi-passive income which would make me money while I worked another job,” she explained.

“It also took me back to selling snacks and drinks at school. It was a full circle moment, but more professional, advanced and didn’t require me operating every single sale.”

The first machine – which held 40 drinks and 250 snacks – was located outside a card shop in Barnsley ended up making just £30 a month, but Megan wasn’t deterred and persevered with until more money began to roll in.

After selling the first machine for a profit she bought a second inside a care home in Manchester and investigated which products were the most popular among her customers, it turns out cans of Coca-Cola are in high-demand, and now makes a whopping £7,000 a month.

This is a long way from the £27,000 a year she made working in finance.

“It took me a while to get to that; don’t get me wrong,” Megan said, adding that the care home location can make up to £1,500 a month alone.

“But I like to think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime location because despite it being so small, it makes so much money, which just makes no sense.”

She now spends two or three days a week restocking her machines, which gives her plenty of time to focus on a second business venture selling trainers as well as researching how she can grow it further.

“I’d like to grow so I can focus on the logistics side. If I could do that, then the sky’s the limit,” Megan added.

These days, ‘bad’ means ‘good’ and people say someone ‘ate that’ when not a single piece of food has passed their lips…so you can see how it’s hard to keep up with.

The lingo that youngsters tend to use is like another language to most parents, and kids often communicate with one another in this code while glued to their smartphones.

It might be innocent enough – perhaps discussing their puppy loves or lost homework – however, these acronyms, emojis and cryptic symbols can also stand for something sinister.

Nottinghamshire Police have shared a laundry list of terms which parents ought to become well versed with, as it could help save your child from a dangerous situation.

The force divvied up the words, hashtags and contractions into three categories describing their risk level; ‘warning flags’, ‘terms to keep an eye on’, and ‘fun’.

The new codes kids are using is a topic which has been thrust to the forefront of a lot of parents minds following the success of Netflix drama Adolescence, starring Stephen Graham.

The acting legend stars as the father of Jamie, played by incredible newcomer Owen Cooper, who uses emojis and slang to disguise the contents of his chats with his teenage pals.

Graham’s character wasn’t the only one left baffled by this means of communication, as a host of Brits were too.

Thankfully, Nottinghamshire Police’s list of 60 terms can act as something of a dictionary of potential danger, as it may help you spot when your offspring is in some kind of trouble.

You might know a few of them already – such as AF referring to ‘as f**k’, DM meaning ‘direct message’, YOLO standing for ‘you only live once’, JK for ‘just kidding’ and ILY for ‘i love you’.

It’s simple enough stuff…but the next generation have also evolved onto other puzzling acronyms these days, such as using ‘CD9’ to explain that a parent is keeping a watchful eye on them.

Other bizarre codewords being used as a cover up for worrying words include ‘sue’ for suicide, CU46 to say ‘see you for sex’ and GNOC, which police say means ‘get naked on camera’.

Further alarming phrases include IWSN for ‘I want sex now’, KPC to say ‘keep parents clueless’ and Molly to refer to ‘ecstasy or MDMA’…unless it really is just a friend named Molly.

Moving on from these ‘warning flags’, police also said there are a few terms which parents should ‘keep an eye on’, such as TMB which stands for ‘tweet me back’.

Cops also pointed out that VSF stands for ‘very sad face’, while the letters SWAK are code for ‘sealed with a kiss’.

As well as this PAP is ‘post a picture’, WTPA is ‘where’s the party at?’, TBR is ‘to be rude’ – while ‘airing’ somebody is just a new way of saying ‘ignoring’.

Teens might brand each other ‘salty’ when referring to someone being bitter, ‘slipping’ means making a mistake, ‘preeing’ means having a cheeky spy on someone via social media and ‘parring’ means having someone off.

Spotting some of these terms on your kids devices might help you nip potential cyberbullying in the bud as early as possible.

There are some completely innocent ‘fun’ slang words being used by youngsters though too, which are simply used to shorten their sentences.

AFAIK means ‘as far as I know’, CBA is ‘can’t be ar**d’ and RAK is ‘random act of kindness’ – so on some occasions, kids are just being kids with these contractions.

You can take a look at Nottinghamshire Police’s full list of terms here:

Warning Flags

#ana – Anorexia

#deb – Depression

#sue –Suicide

#svv – Self-harming behaviour

#thinsp –Thinspiration

9 – A parent is watching

420 – Marijuana

ASL – Age, sex, location

CD9 – Parents are around

Crow – Cannabis

CU46 – See you for sex

Daddy – A partner with influence/power or affection

Down in the DM – Plans for a sexual hook-up in social media/texts

F2F or FTF – Face to face

FWB – Friends with benefits

FYEO – For your eyes only

GNOC – Get naked on camera

Hooking up – Having sex

“I know a way you can earn money fast” – Possible attempt to get photos/webcam access or blackmail info

“I know someone who can get you a modelling job” – Possible attempt to ask for photos/flatter

IRL – In real life

IWSN – I want sex now

“Let’s go private” – Leaving public chatroom for private messaging

LMIRL – Let’s meet in real life

KPC – Keep parents clueless

Merked – Really drunk/beaten up/told off

MIRL – Meeting in real life

Molly – Ecstasy/MDMA (or a person named Molly)

MOOS – Member of the opposite sex

MOS – Mum over shoulder

Moving to (someone) – Approaching aggressively or romantically

Netflix ‘n Chill – Meeting under pretense of watching Netflix, but actually for sex

NIFOC – Naked in front of computer

NSFL – Not safe for life

NSFW – Not safe for work

P911 or P999 – Parents are watching

POS – Parents over shoulder

Pre-ing – Pre-drinking

RU/18 – Are you over 18?

Sket – Insulting term towards girls

Smash – Casual sex

Swipe right – Tinder term of approval

Thirsty – Desperate for something

Trolling – Fooling someone; often abusive online

Wavey – Drunk or high

“Where’s your computer in your house?” – Potentially checking if parents are around

“Who/What’s your favorite band/designer/film/gear?” – Possible attempt to gather info for gifts

Wired – Drug-induced paranoia

WYRN – What’s your real name?

“You are the love of my life” – Potential emotional manipulation

“You seem sad. Tell me what’s bothering you” – Potential attempt to gather personal info

Zerg – To gang up on someone

Keep an eye on

4eae – Forever and ever

AND – Any day now

Af – As f**k

Aired – Ignoring someone

“Are you parring me?” –Are you disrespecting me?

B – Babe (friend)

Bae – Term of endearment (before anyone else)

Basic – Lacking originality

Begfriend – Someone who sucks up to others

BFN – Bye for now

BOL – Be on later

Bookie – Weird or disgusting

Booted – Left behind or dumped

Butters – Ugly person

“Bye Felicia” – Dismissive phrase to tell someone to go away

Curve – Reject someone romantically

Dime – Extremely good looking person

DM – Direct message

Ghost – Completely ignoring someone (ghosting)

GLHF – Good luck, have fun

HT or H/T – Heard through

HAK – Hugs and kisses

IANAL – I am not a lawyer

ILY or ILU – I love you

IU2U – It’s up to you

IYKWIM – If you know what I mean

J4F – Just for fun

JIC – Just in case

J/K – Just kidding

Kicked – Left behind

Low key – Not wanting something widely known

NAGI – Not a good idea

OH – Overheard

PAP – Post a picture

Peng or tidy – Really attractive

Preeing – Looking at someone online (Facebook stalking)

PTB – Please text back

QQ – Crying

RL – Real life

Salty – Bitter about something

Ship – Relationship admiration

Sip tea – Mind your own business

Skurt – Go away or leave

Slept – Knock someone out

Slipping – Messing up

Stacked – Muscly, toned

Swag – Confidence or fancy clothes

SWAK – Sealed with a kiss

SWYP – So what’s your problem?

TBR – To be rude

Throw shade – Give a nasty look or comment

TIME – Tears in my eyes

TMB – Tweet me back

VSF – Very sad face

WTH or WTF – What the heck?

WTPA – Where’s the party at?

WYCM – Will you call me?

WYSIWYG – What you see is what you get

YGM – You’ve got mail

YOLO – You only live once

Fun

:3 –Cat face emoticon (cute/odd/coy)

2day – Today

Acc – Actually

AFAIK – As far as I know

AFK – Away from keyboard

ATM – At the moment

B4 – Before

Baffed – Confused

Banter – Fun chat

Bare/Bear – Really, really

B/C – Because

BF or GF – Boyfriend or girlfriend

Blates – Obviously

Blessed – Nice person

Boots – Used to mean ‘very’ or ‘a lot’

BRB – Be right back

Bromance – Close friendship between two boys

Bruh – Casual “bro”

BTW – By the way

Buck me – Give me

Buff – Attractive

“Can’t even” – Expression of exasperation

CBA – Can’t be bothered

Cray – Crazy

Cuz – Friend

Dench – Fantastic/cool

Dope – Really cool

DWBH – Don’t worry be happy

Fail – Something goes wrong

Fam – Close friends

FB – Facebook

Feels – Feelings

FF – Follow Friday

Fierce – Looking amazing

FOMO – Fear of missing out

FTL – For the loss

FTW – For the win

FWIW – For what it’s worth

FYI – For your information

G – A friend (boy to boy)

Gassed – Happy

GOAT – Greatest of all time

GR8 – Great

GTG – Got to go

Gucci – Good/cool

HAND – Have a nice day

Hella – Really

HTH – Hope this helps

Hundo P – 100% sure

IDEK – I don’t even know

IDK – I don’t know

IIRC – If I remember correctly

IK – I know

IKR – I know, right?

Ill – Fantastic/cool

IMHO – In my honest opinion

IMO – In my opinion

“Is everything” – Great/important

“It’s lit” – Cool/awesome

“I’m weak” – That was funny

Jarring – Annoying

Jokes – Really funny

JSYK – Just so you know

K or KK – Okay

Legend – Very cool person

LMAO or LMBO – Laughing my arse/butt off

LMK – Let me know

Lol – Laugh out loud

MM – Music Monday

MSM – Mainstream media

NM – Never mind

NMU – Not much, you?

NP – No problem

NTS – Note to self

Obvi – Obviously

OMG – Oh my God

On fleek –On point/executed well

ORLY – Oh really?

OTP – Fictional couple meant to be together

Peak – Unfortunate

Pls or plz – Please

PPL – People

RAK – Random act of kindness

ROFL – Rolling on the floor laughing

RT – Retweet

RUOK – Are you okay?

Skl –School

Safe – Reliable/good person

SSDD – Same stuff, different day

Savage – Cool

Sick – Fantastic/cool

Slay – Doing really well

Squad – Friend group

SMH – Shaking my head

Snatched – Same as “on fleek”

SRSLY – Seriously

Straight fire – Hot/trendy

Swear – Serious?

TBH – To be honest

TIA – Thanks in advance

TMI – Too much information

TMRW – Tomorrow

Truss – I agree

TTYL – Talk to you later

Turnt – Excited/lit

TY or TU – Thank you

Ur – Your/you’re

V –Very

YAS – Enthusiastic “yes”

“You da real MVP” – Thanks for doing something important

YW – You’re welcome

Wag1/Wagwan – What’s up?

WB – Welcome back

Woke – Highly aware of social issues

ZOMG – Oh my God

Rather than focusing on whether or not he did it, Adolescence seems more concerned with the causes and consequences of the terrible killing as everyone struggles to figure out how a 13-year-old boy would kill another child.

Leading star Stephen Graham revealed there was a ‘true story’ behind Adolescence, as the actor said there was an ‘epidemic amongst young lads up and down the country’.

“There was an incident where a young boy [allegedly] stabbed a girl,” Graham told Netflix’s Tudum.

“It shocked me. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening in society where a boy stabs a girl to death? What’s the inciting incident here?’

“And then it happened again, and it happened again, and it happened again. I really just wanted to shine a light on it, and ask, ‘Why is this happening today? What’s going on? How have we come to this?’”

During the investigation into why the boy murdered his classmate detectives must decipher what the online language of phrases and emojis actually mean, particularly in the ‘incel’ world.

The son of one of the detectives explains to his dad what the ‘red pill’ means, with the character making the connection to The Matrix and saying: “The red pill is like ‘I see the truth.’ It’s a call to action by the manosphere.”

For many viewers, Adolescence will be their first proper introduction to the terminology and emojis used by the ‘manosphere’, a group of misogynistic online communities which try to bring boys and men round to seeing women as beneath them.

Another of the emojis explained in Adolescence is the ‘100’ emoji and how it fits into the ‘incel’ worldview.

Back in better times the ‘100’ emoji was usually more associated with the number it depicted, and taken to mean something like ‘100 percent’ or ‘absolutely’.

However, one of the characters in Adolescence explained that in the less pleasant parts of the internet the ‘100’ emoji is a reference to something called ‘the 80 to 20 rule’.

As the show describes it: “80 percent of women are attracted to 20 percent of men. Women, you must trick them because you’ll never get them in a normal way.”

Unfortunately, among some online circles there’s a belief that the vast majority of women are only interested in the ‘top’ 20 percent of men as a way to explain why they’re not getting dates.

In their concocted incel worldview most women are not interested in most men, which is one of the ways incels tell themselves it’s actually women’s fault they can’t get a girlfriend when they get rejected.

The actual origin of the ’80 to 20 rule’ is 19th century Italian economics and is concerned with how 20 percent of the population owned 80 percent of the land, and has nothing to do with the gremlins of the manosphere cooking up reasons why it’s a woman’s fault for not being interested in them.

Hamilton, who made the switch to Ferrari after 12 years with Mercedes, competed in his first race with his new team on Sunday (16 March), finishing in 10th place.

The first race of the new Formula One season saw Lando Norris claim first on the podium, with Max Verstappen and George Russell in second and third respectively – while there was also a late change to fourth spot after a five second penalty for Kimi Antonelli was overturned.

Perhaps the main talking point from the race at Albert Park in Melbourne was Hamilton’s heated exchange with his new colleague, engineer Riccardo Adami, with the F1 legend seemingly frustrated with the drive-ability of the new car as well as the differing weather predictions.

After the race, the 40-year-old race car driver told Sky Sports: “It was very tricky… It went a lot worse than I thought it would go, the car was really hard to drive today. I’m grateful I kept it out of the wall, that’s where it wanted to go most of the time.

“A lot to take [in], different power unit in the wet, different driving and setup on the steering wheel. And the guidance of how much more rain was coming… we missed out.

“The information I got was that it was a short shower, and real quick, and it was just the last corner. But then more came.”

And Ferrari has now made a vow to the British driver after a rather disappointing start with the Italian racing team.

Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s team principal, has said that major improvements will be made to the communication going forwards.

He said: “It’s the first race. The first time we have to communicate between the pit wall and the car. But we can do a better job, to know each other a bit better.

“It was not a great weekend for us. But let me focus on next week [China], that we’ll have to learn a lot from this weekend because we made mistakes.

“We need to improve the communication and to understand what Lewis is expecting from that communication. It’s only in these kinds of situations that we can learn and be much better next week.”

Hamilton’s new teammate, Charles Leclerc, finished ahead of him in eighth spot, in what was undoubtedly a tough start to the season for the Ferrari team.

The next race in the F1 season is the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai and will take place from 21 to 23 March, 2025.

The Jetstream 32 aircraft, which was operated by Honduran airline Lanhsa, crashed into the sea within a minute of taking off from the island of Roatán, the BBC reports.

In separate statements following the accident, the local police and fire department confirmed that five people had been rescued, with one person still being unaccounted for.

It is believed that at least 12 people were killed in the crash.

Roatán’s mayor informed local media that the crash was not caused by the weather, with the cause remaining unknown at the time. Meanwhile, the Honduran Civil Aeronautics Agency have confirmed that an investigation is taking place.

The plane took off from Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport at 6.18pm local time on Monday (17 March), and was travelling to Golosón International Airport in La Ceiba, a city on the Honduran mainland.

According to civil aviation official Carlos Padilla, the plane had ‘made a sharp turn to the right of the runway and fell into the water’, reports CBS News.

The Honduran government also took to social media to share a statement, saying: “The Government of Honduras deeply regrets the tragic accident in Roatán and joins in the national mourning.”

Honduran President Xiomara Castro ‘immediately activated’ the nation’s emergency committee, which is made up of the military, police, fire department, Red Cross and the Ministry of Health.

Speaking on X, she added: “They have immediately arrived at the scene of the plane crash that occurred 1 km from Roatán International Airport and are tirelessly assisting in the unfortunate incident. May God protect people’s lives.”

It has been reported by local media that among those deceased is a popular musician local to the region, as a chilling video of the incident was posted on social media by the national police, showing rescue workers carrying a survivor onto the shore.

Other videos shared by officials show rescue teams working in the dark along the coast, with small boats and stretchers on hand to help survivors.

It is reported that the plane had 15 passengers onboard, as well as two pilots and just one flight attendant.

The police claimed in a statement online that the accident was caused by an ‘apparent mechanical failure’ on the British-made aircraft.

Those who were injured in the crash were taken to a hospital in the city of San Pedro Sula in the mainland, according to Major Wilmer Guerrero.