London Southend Airport will remain closed until further notice after a plane crashed in what witnesses described as a "fireball". Essex Police said it was alerted to a 12-metre plane on fire at the site in Southend-on-Sea shortly before 16:00 BST on Sunday.

Maps from Flightradar24 show the plane briefly taxiing down the runway at Southend Airport before lifting off, with the aircraft disappearing from radars at the moment of the crash

A witness who was at the airport with his family said he saw a “big fireball” after the plane “crashed head first into the ground.”