Huge fireball in sky as plane crashes at London Southend Airport

(Web Desk) - An aircraft has crashed at London Southend Airport following which all flights from the said airport have been cancelled.

Essex Police said it was alerted to a 12-metre plane on fire at the site in Southend-on-Sea shortly before 16:00 BST on Sunday.

The airport confirmed there had been a "serious incident" and it was working with the local authorities.

John Johnson, 40, from Billericay, Essex, was watching planes with his wife and children when he saw a "huge fireball".

According to the airport's website, four flights scheduled to take off on Sunday afternoon have been cancelled.

The airport added it would provide more information "as soon as possible".

Mr Johnson was at the airport with his wife and children to watch aircraft activity as "my sons are really into planes".

His family waved at the pilots of the aircraft before it went down, 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," he said.

"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.