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A budget airliner plummeted towards the sea at 300mph just seconds after take-off.

The Airbus A320 aircraft in Italy suffered a "serious incident" shortly after the plane took off from Sicily's Catania Airport. The Air Arabia aircraft had departed from the island's airport at 9:57pm on September 20, before a "Ground Proximity Warning System pull-up message" was received.

The plane had been heading for Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan at the time of the incident, a statement shared by Italian aviation accident investigation agency said. The agency said the pull-up message "occurred as the aircraft approached the sea surface, reaching a short distance from it."

Flight tracking website Flightradar24, the messages "are vital safety systems in modern aircraft that ar

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