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 plane on fire at the site in Southend-on-Sea shortly before 16:00 BST on Sunday.
On its website, the airport said all Monday’s flights – departures and arrivals – had been “rerouted”. It urged passengers to check with their airline for advice.
There has been no confirmation of the number of casualties.
Dutch company Zeusch Aviation confirmed that its SUZ1 flight had been “involved in an accident” at the airport.
Based at Lelystad Airport in The Netherlands, the company said it was actively supporting authorities with the investigation, and that its thoughts were with “everyone who has been affected”.
The plane had flown from the Greek capital Athens to Pula in Croatia on Sunday before heading to Southend, with a planned return to Lelystad Airport that evening.
John Johnson, 40, from Billericay, Essex, was watching planes with his wife and children when he saw a “huge fireball” after the plane crashed “head first into the ground”.
“You could see [the pilots] smiling and we all kind of smiled back. The aircraft then turned 180 degrees to face its take-off point, powered up its engines and powered past us, carrying on down the runway,” he told the BBC.
“It took off in probably three or four seconds. It started to bank heavily to its left.
“I said to my wife, ‘That’s unusual.’ We don’t find aircraft normally turning at that stage in their ascent.
“Within a few seconds of that, the aircraft almost inverted and hit the ground. There was a huge fireball.”
He called 999 to report the incident.
James Philpott, a bartender at the Rochford Hundred Golf Club, had been in a hut in the middle of the course when he felt “a big heatwave”.
“I looked up and there was a massive fireball, basically,” he told the BBC.
“Everyone was just quite shocked… we haven’t seen anything like this.
“People were sort of running towards it to see if anyone was injured.”
People were evacuated from the course due to its close proximity to the crash, but Mr Philpott said some people remained in the clubhouse as it was further away.
Pete Jones, chairman of Westcliff Rugby Club, which is also near the airport, said people at the club did not have to evacuate following the plane crash.
He said the aircraft went down about 1km (0.6 miles) from the clubhouse and that people there could see smoke in the aftermath.
