Plane crashes takeoff in London Southend: what we know about the accident so far

A small plane crashed on takeoff yesterday, July 13, at London Southend Airport: according to the British media, it was a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air, about 12 metres long and bound for Lelystad, in the Netherlands. The aircraft had been used for medical transport and was also equipped with systems for transporting patients: at the moment, however, the authorities have not yet clarified the dynamics of the accident. There were four people on the plane: the pilot, the co-pilot and two nurses. Unfortunately, the crash caused the death of all four passengers.

According to some witnesses, immediately after takeoff the plane began to tilt sharply to the left, and then turned over and crashed "upside down to the ground". Flight Radar information reports that the SUZ1 flight, operated by Zeusch Aviation, would have reached a maximum height of 54 metres above the fifth runway of Southend, oriented to the northeast, and then plunged into a golf course near the airport.

The crash caused a violent explosion, with a cloud of smoke visible from great distances and described by witnesses as "a huge fireball". Local authorities have sent four ambulances, four vehicles from the intervention team for hazardous areas and an air ambulance to the site. The same aircraft, among other things, had already made two other flights during the morning, first from Athens to Pula airport (in Croatia) and then from the Croatian airport to the British airport, which is located about 72 kilometres from London.

London Southend Airport, in a post on X, limited itself to confirming the closure of air traffic due to a serious accident involving a general aviation aircraft. The authorities have also cancelled all departing and arriving flights scheduled for today, July 14. For the moment, no other details on the air disaster are available: the AAIB (Air Accidents Investigation Branch), the British body that deals with air accidents, has confirmed the opening of an investigation to reconstruct the dynamics of the facts. The situation therefore remains in update.