E-Paper
London Southend Airport plane crash: Huge fireball goes up in sky as small aircraft crashes
London Southend Airport plane crash: Visuals claimed to be of the incident surfaced on social media, showing thick plume of smoke rising high up in the sky.
A small plane crashed at London Southend Airport on Sunday, British news portals reported, with the police saying it was at the scene of a "serious incident". London Southend Airport is situated on the outskirts of Southend-on-Sea in England's Essex
Visuals said to be of the incident surfaced on social media, showing a huge fireball and then thick plume of black smoke rising high up in the sky.
The aircraft, a Beech B200 Super King Air, was reportedly scheduled to fly from Southend to Lelystad in the Netherlands and went down just moments after becoming airborne around 4 pm.
There was no immediate information on the number of passengers on the plane.
A police statement said quoted in the Sky News report read. “We were alerted shortly before 4pm to reports of a collision involving one 12-metre plane… We are working with all emergency services at the scene now and that work will be ongoing for several hours.”
Police requested the public to avoid the area where possible. The East of England Ambulance Service said it had sent four ambulances and other response vehicles to the crash site.
David Burton-Sampson, the MP for Southend West and Leigh, posted on social media about the incident and also asked the public to stay away from the area
“I am aware of an incident at Southend Airport. Please keep away and allow the emergency services to do their work,” he posted on social media. "My thoughts are with everyone involved."
Police, as a precaution, evacuated the Rochford Hundred Golf Club and Westcliff Rugby Club due to its proximity to the crash site.
At least four flights scheduled to take off from the London Southend Airport were cancelled after the plane crash incident, according to its website.
Sky News, citing flight-tracking website Flightradar, reported that two planes that had been due to land at Southend were diverted to nearby airports Gatwick and Stansted.
