Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show London Southend Airport Beechcraft B200 Plane Crash

Fact Check

  • by: Uliana Malashenko
Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show London Southend Airport Beechcraft B200 Plane Crash South Africa

Does a viral video show a July 13, 2025, plane crash at London Southend Airport? No, that's not true: The footage predates it. It captures an airshow in South Africa that resulted in one plane hitting the ground and killing the pilot.

The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on July 13, 2025. It opened:

The Airpccraft inmolved in the London Southend Airport plane crash is a Beechcraft B200 that crashed at about 4pm on Sunday,13th July,2025 soon after taking off. It was seen in flames with dark smoke billowing from it, according to this video.

This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:

Screenshot 2025-07-14 at 10.51.52 AM.png

(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)

The entry referenced the July 13, 2025, plane crash at London Southend Airport in Essex (archived here).

The video in it, however, showed a different plane crash that occurred in South Africa. It had been online for longer than three months, published by WKYC-TV, for example, (archived here):

Screenshot 2025-07-14 at 10.48.15 AM.png

(Source: YouTube screenshot by Lead Stories)

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  Uliana Malashenko

Uliana Malashenko joined Lead Stories as a freelance fact checking reporter in March 2022. Since then, she has investigated viral claims about U.S. elections and international conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, among many other things. Before Lead Stories she spent over a decade working in broadcast and digital journalism, specializing in covering breaking news and politics. She is based in New York.

Read more about or contact Uliana Malashenko

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