It’s been just over a year since the crash that killed all four people on board a medical evacuation plane at London Southend Airport — and investigators say they’re still working to establish exactly what went wrong.
The Beech B200 Super King Air, registered PH-ZAZ and operated by Dutch firm Zeusch Aviation, crashed moments after departing Runway 05 on 13 July 2025, bound for Lelystad in the Netherlands. According to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch’s latest update, the aircraft yawed slightly to the left just before rotation, then climbed to somewhere between 70 and 80 feet before turning sharply and descending into the ground, followed by an intense post-crash fire.
The fire has made the investigation unusually difficult. With only limited physical evidence surviving the impact and blaze, the AAIB has had to reconstruct the aircraft’s final moments largely from witness video, CCTV footage and ADS-B tracking data, working alongside the manufacturers of the airframe and its components. Neither a flight data recorder nor a cockpit voice recorder was fitted — aircraft of that size aren’t required to carry either — which has left investigators with fewer of the usual tools to draw on.
The AAIB says its focus remains on understanding what caused the loss of control, examining technical, operational, human and organisational factors. A final report will be published once the investigation is complete, though no timeline has been given.
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