Southend plane crash: Everything we know as victims named and airport closed

Southend plane crash: Everything we know as victims named and airport closedSource: Simon Calder/ The Independent

Transcript

00:00The tragic crash at Southend Airport has cost the lives of four people believed to be

00:06foreign nationals who were on board an air ambulance which crashed shortly after take-off

00:13on Sunday afternoon from the South Essex Airport. Immediately the airport was closed

00:21and that continues to be the case. Essex Police and the airport itself say that it will remain

00:28closed until further notice. I've had a number of people getting in touch wondering why that would

00:35be the case if you look at for example the Ahmedabad crash which so tragically cost the lives of 260

00:43people in June. That was actually a crash where the aircraft landed away from the airport so although

00:53operations were halted they resumed relatively quickly. In this case the aircraft came down

01:01within the airport perimeter the Civil Aviation Authority and the investigators have sealed off

01:08part of the airport to try to understand what happened and until their work is done then there

01:17will be no operations in and out of Southend. It's the quietest of the airports serving London but

01:27earlier this year EasyJet launched a relatively large program of flights to Sunshine destinations

01:35and those have been moved to other airports so the flights will still be going but possibly from Stansted,

01:44from Gatwick and from Luton. That will continue until further notice and of course with the start of the

01:54school holidays coming up at the end of this week for many families that will mean that the other airports

02:01are more crowded than ever. I predict that actually Southend Airport may come back into use before the weekend

02:12but that will not be rushed. The investigators will be allowed to do their work for as long as they need.

02:20The operations take very much second place to that. It's a terrible tragedy of course for the

02:31loved ones of the people involved and for the wider airport community. It is a really really difficult thing when

02:40an airport is the location for a tragedy like this and of course the frontline emergency workers will have

02:50had some very very difficult work. So my thoughts with them and we will let you know when Southend Airport

02:58is once again open for business.