Doomed Southend flight's final route shows moment plane crashed in 'fireball'

A plane that crashed into a "fireball", halting all flights to and fromSouthend Airport, had taken off just moments beforehand, maps of its doomed route show.

Flight SUZ1, a Beech B200 aircraft, crashed near the runway of Southend Airport on Sunday afternoon, shutting all inbound and outbound operations on the site into the new week. Officials have not confirmed how many people died in the disaster, during which eyewitnesses said they saw the 12-metre aircraft enveloped in a "fireball". Maps tracing the plane's route show it crashed just a matter of minutes after takeoff, having never left the airport.

READ MORE: Southend Airport plane crash UPDATES: Plane 'corkscrewed upside down into ground'

Witnesses reported seeing a huge plume of smoke billowing into the sky after the aircraft - thought to be transporting medical supplies - crashed at 4pm on Sunday.

Maps from live flight tracking service Flightradar24 show the aircraft briefly taxiing down the runway before taking off and heading in the direction of Rochford. This is where the route tracking ends, with the plane having spent just a few minutes in motion during the afternoon.

Witness John Johnson, 40, from Billericay, Essex, said he was watching planes with his family on Sunday when he saw a "huge fireball" after the plane crashed "head first into the ground".

Mr Johnson told the BBC he saw the pilots were smiling before the incident on Sunday, with the aircraft starting to bank "heavily to its left" before it crashed. He said: "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.

"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." 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 in the Netherlands, where its operator, Zeusch Aviation, is based, that evening.

The firm said in a statement that it was actively working with authorities after the aircraft was "involved in an accident".

A spokesperson added that its thoughts were with "everyone who has been affected", with Essex Police saying it was alerted to a 12-metre plane catching fire at the Southend-on-Sea airport shortly before 4pm. Southend Airport has said that, while it would continue to inform the public on any developments, flights would not be operating on Monday.

People who were due to travel from the site today have been advised to contact their airlines.