00:00I want to take you straight to Southend Airport where there is a statement being made on the
00:04crash of that light airplane yesterday.
00:06...with what is an extremely sensitive and complex investigation.
00:11Yesterday afternoon an aircraft which had landed here earlier in the day took off bound for the
00:16Netherlands. Shortly after takeoff it got into difficulty and crashed within the airport boundary.
00:23Sadly we can now confirm that all four people on board died.
00:26We are working to officially confirm their identities. At this stage we believe all four are foreign nationals.
00:36Our thoughts are with the families and their colleagues at this tragic time.
00:40I can promise that those who have passed away will be treated with the utmost care and dignity.
00:46Our detectives and forensic teams are working in parallel with air accident investigators,
00:51the Royal Air Force, Essex Fire and Rescue Service and London Southend Airport to build an accurate picture of what happened.
00:59To aid our investigation, the Civil Aviation Authority has put in place a significant air exclusion zone surrounding the crash site.
01:08We are also speaking with dozens of witnesses, some of whom have already provided video footage and we would like to thank them for their help.
01:17I know this would have been an extremely distressing scene for them.
01:20I would also like to thank London Southend Airport and the wider public for their patience and their understanding.
01:26I know there will be a lot of questions about what happened here yesterday.
01:32We are doing all we can to establish the facts and get those answers.
01:37We will provide further updates as soon as we practically can.
01:42I will now hand you over to June Winstanley, Chief Executive Officer of London Southend Airport.
01:48Good afternoon.
01:56On behalf of everyone at London Southend Airport, I would like to offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of those lost in yesterday's tragic incident.
02:09We would also like to thank our local community for their messages of support and understanding at this difficult time.
02:21Our staff are working closely with the emergency services and air accident investigators to support their work.
02:31I would like to thank them for all of their hard work during this period.
02:36We are in constant dialogue with our operating airlines and, as I'm sure everyone will understand, the airport will remain closed until further notice.
02:51Passengers should contact their airline for information and advice.
02:58Now I'd like to hand over to Lisa Fitzsammons.
03:06Good afternoon.
03:07I am Lisa Fitzsimmons and I am a Principal Inspector at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
03:14The AAIB investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the United Kingdom.
03:21We were notified of an accident which occurred at Southend Airport at 1611 yesterday afternoon
03:27and immediately deployed a team of six inspectors and engineering support staff.
03:33Today, that initial team has been supplemented by an additional two inspectors.
03:41The AAIB team are highly qualified and on-site we currently have expertise in engineering, aircraft operations, human factors and recorded data.
03:55We have launched a safety investigation which will establish the circumstances and causes of this tragic accident.
04:05Our investigation is in parallel to the investigation by Essex Police.
04:10If there are safety lessons that can be learned, we will make recommendations that aim to prevent a similar accident occurring.
04:21Now that the emergency services have secured the site, we will be able to begin gathering the evidence we need to understand the circumstances that led to this accident.
04:31The aircraft involved in the accident was a Beechcraft B-200 Super King Air.
04:39As part of our investigation, we are liaising with other State Investigation Authorities.
04:47At this stage, it is too early to speculate on what may have caused this tragic accident.
04:53Our focus is on gathering the physical evidence from the accident site and interviewing witnesses.
05:02The remains of the aircraft will then be recovered to our facility in Farnborough, Hampshire for further detailed investigation.
05:12Our thoughts are with the families and friends of everyone involved.
05:17We would also like to express our thanks to the emergency services and the airport for their assistance.
05:30So a short statement there from Essex Police at London South End Airport and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
05:38Bringing us up to speed with the early part of the investigation into that crash on Sunday, just beyond the runway at South End, a Beechcraft B-200 Super King Air going down.
05:52The main line out of that was that all four people on board the plane died and all four are believed to be foreign nationals.
05:59As you heard there, they were heading to the Netherlands, to Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands when it came down.
06:06But very early in the flight, clearly there were problems with that aircraft.
