Small plane crashes at London Southend Airport, killing all 4 passengers on board
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(LONDON) — A small plane crashed at London Southend Airport in Sussex, England, on Sunday, killing all four people on board, according to local officials.
On Sunday, Essex Police said they were on the scene after a “serious incident” occurred at the Southend airport at approximately 4 p.m. local time. They said they are responding to reports of a “collision involving one 12 metre plane” and said the emergency response will last several hours.
The aircraft — which had landed at the airport earlier in the day — took off and was heading to the Netherlands, Essex Police said on Monday. But shortly after takeoff, the plane got “into difficulty and crashed within the airport boundary.”
Police are “working to officially confirm” the identities of the four dead people but they believe all are foreign nationals, authorities said on Monday.
“Our thoughts are with their families and colleagues at this tragic time. I can promise them that those who have passed away will be treated with the utmost care and dignity,” police said.
Zeusch Aviation confirmed on Sunday its flight SUZ1 was involved in the incident and that the company is “actively supporting the authorities with the investigation.”
The East England Ambulance Service said they’ve sent “four ambulances, a rapid response vehicle, four Hazardous Are Response Team vehicles, three senior paramedic cars and an Essex and Herts Air Ambulance” to the airport.
Officials said the public should avoid the area and that they are evacuating the Rochford Hundred Golf Club and Westcliff Rugby Club “due to their proximity to the incident.”
London Southend Airport confirmed the “serious incident” on Sunday afternoon involving a “general aviation aircraft.”
“We are working closely with the local authorities and will be able to provide more information as soon as possible,” the airport said in a statement.
Airport authorities later said the airport is closed until further notice as investigations respond to the incident.
“All flights to and from the Airport have been cancelled while Police, emergency services and air accident investigators are attending the incident. We ask that any passengers due to travel tomorrow via London Southend Airport contact their airline for information and advice,” airport officials said in a statement.
The spokesperson for the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said they are aware of they accident “involving an aircraft near Southend Airport this afternoon” and have deployed a “team and an investigation into the cause of the accident.”
London Southend Airport is located about one hour east of London, a few miles from the coast.
ABC News’ Victoria Beaule, Ayesha Ali and Will Gretsky contributed to this story.
(LONDON) — Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of graphic violence.
Aid distribution through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites (GHF) resumed at two sites in Rafah, Gaza, on Thursday, the group said.
One of the sites, which has been used by GHF previously, is now closed after distribution was finished for the day, the U.S.-backed group said. The second site is a new one that is located 1 kilometer away and will open at 2:15 p.m. local time, according to the GHF.
Aid in Gaza was paused after several people died and were injured trying to reach the sites to obtain food, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, eyewitness reports on the ground and international aid organizations working in Gaza.
Palestinians described harrowing scenes of bullets flying and people dying around them as they tried to get aid with a famine looming in Gaza.
The U.S.- and Israel-backed GHF suspended distribution of aid in Gaza on Wednesday after a deadly shooting left at least 27 people dead and more than 90 others injured on Tuesday while people were trying to reach one of the distribution sites in southern Gaza, according to Gaza health officials, eyewitnesses on the ground in Gaza and the International Committee of the Red Cross working on the ground in Gaza.
The GHF asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to “enhance its security measures beyond the perimeter,” “develop clearer guidance” and “enhance IDF force training to support safety,” a GHF source told ABC News on Wednesday.
The newly established food distribution centers, constructed last month according to satellite imagery obtained and reviewed by ABC News, in southern Gaza have been overrun since they opened last week, with thousands of Palestinians in search of food and medicine following Israel’s partial lifting of the 11-week blockade of aid, according to aid groups.
The Israeli government imposed an 11-week blockade on all humanitarian aid entering Gaza on March 2, after the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended. The Israeli government said the blockade was put in place to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages being held in Gaza.
One Palestinian who was injured trying to get flour at one of the sites said he was “surprised to find bullets hitting us,” when he went in search of food.
“I went to get some flour — only flour. Just a kilo or two of flour for our home. We were surprised to find bullets hitting us. Even lying on the ground bullets were still hitting us,” Kamel Muhanna, a Palestinian who was injured while attempting to receive aid in Rafah, told ABC News.
Muhanna described people dying around him while he was near the aid distribution site trying to get food. Those whose family members were with them collected their bodies, but those who did not remained on the ground, he said.
“The bullet passed through the head of the young man in front of me and then hit me. There were like 100 in front of me and I still got hit,” Muhanna said. “If the bullet hadn’t killed the young man in front of me, it would have taken off my arm.”
Dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds more were injured in two events in the last week, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health and the International Committee of the Red Cross working on the ground in Gaza.
Nasser NaserAllah, a Palestinian who was being treated inside Nasser Hospital, told ABC News the aid “is like a trap.”
“If there wasn’t aid, fewer people would have died,” he said. “They killed women, children [there was] blood on the ground everywhere — huge tragedies.”
The IDF acknowledged they “carried out warning fire approximately half a kilometer from the aid distribution center, targeting a few individuals who were approaching in a way that posed a security threat,” in a video statement given in English by IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they have responded to five incidents, four of which had occurred in the previous 96 hours.
The majority of victims suffered gunshot wounds, and “all responsive patients said they were trying to reach an assistance distribution site,” the ICRC said.
The GHF said it closed the distribution sites Wednesday for “preparations and staging” to prepare for the large number of people it expects to arrive.
“We did not expect 15,000 per hour,” the GHF said in the statement.
At the same time, the GHF said in a statement to media Tuesday they have distributed approximately 7 million meals in Gaza since they began operating last week.
The GHF also said they distributed 21 truckloads of food, totaling 20,160 boxes providing approximately 1,159,200 meals to Palestinians on Tuesday morning.
Established international aid groups operating inside Gaza — including Amnesty International and the ICRC — and the United Nations have criticized the U.S.-backed aid distribution plan, saying it is militarized and negates the neutrality of international humanitarian work.
NaserAllah claimed that the situation goes beyond hunger.
“People are living in famine,” he said.
Gaza’s entire population is experiencing critical levels of hunger, according to a report released last month. Gaza’s 2.1 million residents will face a “crisis” level of food insecurity — or worse — through the end of September, according to an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership report.
He also noted that people are forced to go to the aid distribution areas despite the risks.
“A week ago, my cousin Ibn Hassoonah, went to the aid station. They shot him dead [but we still go] because of the severity of the hunger,” he said. “If they don’t die from bullets, they die from hunger.”
(MOSCOW) — A failed Soviet-era spacecraft that became trapped in Earth’s orbit by mistake more than 50 years ago is expected to crash back down onto the planet in a matter of days, according to space experts.
Cosmos 482 was launched in 1972 as part of the Soviet Union’s Venera program, which intended to explore Venus, according to NASA.
The unmanned spacecraft experienced a successful initial launch on March 31, 1972, and temporarily orbited Earth.
However, it did not achieve sufficient velocity to launch into a Venus transfer trajectory, NASA said, and the payload — or the portion of the craft significantly related to the craft’s primary mission — was unable to exit Earth’s orbit.
Astronomers hypothesize that a malfunction on a timer caused the engine to burn prematurely, NASA said.
The spacecraft then broke into four pieces. Two of the pieces, which remained in low orbit, decayed within 48 hours. Orbital decay refers to an incremental decrease in altitude, gradually closing a craft’s distance to Earth, according to NASA.
The other two pieces — including the large lander probe — became stuck in Earth’s higher orbit. It has experienced orbital decay for decades, NASA said, and that decay has brought it close enough to reenter the planet’s atmosphere around May 10.
Because the probe was designed to withstand entry into Venus’ atmosphere — which is 90 times denser than Earth’s — it is possible that parts of it could survive reentry and continue onward to the planet’s surface, according to NASA.
The risk of Cosmos 482 striking people on the ground is low — but not impossible, Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, wrote on his website last month.
“No need for major concern, but you wouldn’t want it bashing you on the head,” McDowell wrote.
The lander probe is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere between Friday and Sunday, NASA said. The craft is about 3.2 feet across and weighs about 1,100 pounds.
As of Tuesday, the landing location was estimated to be anywhere between 52 N and 52 S latitude. This large swath contains the United States, as well as most of the continents on Earth.
The time and location of a return to Earth will likely be predicted more accurately as reentry nears, according to NASA.
Astronomers are increasingly monitoring space junk left near Earth during launches of satellites and other spacecraft. There are currently more than 1.2 million known pieces of space debris, 50,000 of which measure more than 4 inches across, according to a 2025 report by the European Space Agency.
“Even if we created no new space debris, it would not be enough to prevent a runaway series of collisions and fragmentations,” the ESA said in a statement.
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(LONDON) — American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander — held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023 — was set to be released Monday after successful negotiations between the U.S. and the Palestinian group.
Israeli security officials told ABC News there would be a temporary pause in combat, airstrikes and aerial reconnaissance in the area of Gaza where Alexander is to be released.
The pause will last until Alexander crosses into Israeli territory, officials said, which is expected to take less than 30 minutes.
An Israeli official told ABC News that Hamas is expected to release Alexander at 6:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. ET). His mother, Yael, arrived at Re’im military base in southern Israel near the Gaza border, accompanied by Special Envoy for Hostage Response Adam Boehler.
Alexander is expected to be received at Re’im before being transported to a hospital in Tel Aviv.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday met with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, per a readout from his office.
Netanyahu also spoke with President Donald Trump, the statement said, with the Israeli leader thanking Trump for his assistance in securing Alexander’s release.
“The prime minister discussed the last-ditch effort to implement the outline for the release of the hostages presented by Witkoff, before the escalation of the fighting,” the statement said. “To this end, the prime minister instructed that a negotiating delegation be sent to Doha tomorrow.”
“The prime minister clarified that the negotiations will only take place under fire,” it added.
Alexander was born in New Jersey and traveled to Israel at the age of 18. He was serving in the Israel Defense Forces when captured from his base close to the Gaza frontier during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. He was 19 when abducted.
Alexander is the last living American citizen still believed to be held hostage by Hamas. The terror group is believed to also be holding the bodies of four dead American hostages, according to U.S. officials.
Hamas announced its intention to free Alexander on Sunday, describing the decision as a “part of the steps being taken to achieve a ceasefire.”
The statement said Hamas has been in contact with American officials “over the past few days” as part of ceasefire negotiations.
President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social saying Alexander’s release “is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict.” Trump did not specify exactly when the release would happen.
Special Envoy for Hostage Response Adam Boehler posted on X that he would travel with Alexander’s mother to retrieve her son.
A U.S. official familiar with the deal to release Alexander told ABC News that the agreement came together in recent days via direct talks between the U.S. and Hamas.
Alexander’s release is being viewed as a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration and a potential opening to jumpstart talks surrounding the broader conflict, U.S. officials told ABC News.
Still, officials said the U.S. did not secure all the concessions it was seeking. Negotiators had also been pushing Hamas for the release of the remains of the four dead American hostages still held in Gaza, officials said.
Alexander’s family said in a statement released through the Hostage Families Forum that it was informed of Hamas’ announcement and “is in continuous contact with the U.S. government regarding the possibility of Edan’s expected release in the coming days.”
They added that “it is forbidden to leave any hostage behind” and said that “Israel is committed to ensure the return of all 58 remaining hostages without delay.”
Alexander was one of the 253 hostages taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people were also killed, according to Israel.
Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza had killed 52,829 people and wounded 119,554 more as of Sunday, according to figures released by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in the strip.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston contributed to this report.
