India, June 12 -- Flight tracking platform FlightRadar has revealed that the last signal from Air India flight AI171 was received seconds after takeoff and it gained an altitude of 625 feet before it crashed on Thursday. Thick plumes of smoke were seen rising into the Ahmedabad skyline seconds after the crash.

"Air India flight #AI171 was scheduled to fly from Ahmedabad International Airport to London Gatwick Airport. The signal from the aircraft was lost at 08:08 UTC (13:38 local time) at 625 feet, less than a minute after take off," FlightRadar said.

The flight tracking platform added that the last signal was received around 1:38 PM, just moments before it took off.

The aircraft had 242 passengers onboard and went down near the Megha...