LONDON (AP) — All four people aboard a small plane that crashed shortly after taking off from London Southend Airport are dead, police said Monday.
Essex Police said work continued to formally identify the victims of Sunday's crash. "At this stage, we believe all four are foreign nationals," Police Chief Superintendent Morgan Cronin told reporters.
Britain’s national news agency, PA, reported that a document listing passengers indicated that two Dutch pilots and a Chilean nurse were among those aboard.
The Beechcraft B200 Super King Air operated by Dutch firm Zeusch Aviation had flown from Athens, Greece, to Pula in Croatia before heading to Southend. It was due to return to its home base of Lelystad in the Netherlands on Sunday evening.
The 12-meter (39-foot) turboprop plane came down moments after takeoff and burst into flames.
“At this stage, it is too early to speculate on what may have caused this tragic accident,” said Lisa Fitzsimons of Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, which said it sent a “multi-disciplinary team including inspectors with expertise in aircraft operations, human factors, engineering and recorded data” to the airport.
London Southend is a relatively small airport, around 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of the British capital, used for short-haul flights. The airport remained closed on Monday with no word on when it would reopen.
Zeusch Aviation operates medical evacuation and transplant flights as well as aerial mapping and private charters, according to its website. The company said that “our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the victims, their families, and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.”
The Beechcraft B200 Super King Air, first built in the 1970s, is an aviation workhorse used in a wide variety of roles around the world.
In 2017, a plane of the same model crashed into the roof of a shopping mall in Melbourne, Australia, moments after takeoff, killing the pilot and four American tourists.
Passengers outside the terminal building at Southend Airport in Essex, where a 12-metre plane crashed shortly after take off on Sunday afternoon, Monday July 14, 2025. (Joe Giddens/PA via AP)
ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
