The NHL’s board of governors and the NHLPA’s membership have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement. The current CBA runs through the end of the 2025-26 season, with the new one carrying through the end of the 2029-30 season.

While the continuation of labor peace is the most important development for a league that has endured multiple work stoppages this millennium, there are a number of wrinkles that are noteworthy to fans.

ESPN reporters Ryan S. Clark, Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski break it all down for you here:

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When does this new CBA take effect?

The new NHL CBA is set to begin on Sept. 16, 2026 and runs through Sept. 15, 2030. Including the coming season, that gives the NHL five years of labor peace, and would make the fastest both sides have reached an extension in Gary Bettman’s tenure as NHL commissioner.

It’s also the first major negotiation for NHLPA head Marty Walsh, who stepped into the executive director role in 2023 — Shilton

What are the big differences in the new CBA compared to the current one?

There are a few major headlines from the new CBA.

First are the schedule changes: the league will move to an 84-game regular season, with a shortened preseason (a maximum of four games), so each team is still able to play every opponent while divisional rivals have four games against one another every other season.

There will also be alterations to contract lengths, going to a maximum seven-year deal instead of the current eight-year mark; right now, a player can re-sign for eight years with his own team or seven with another in free agency, while the new CBA stipulates it’ll be seven or six years, respectively.

Deferred salaries will also be on the way out. And there will be a new position established for a team’s full-time emergency backup goaltender — or EBUG — where that player can practice and travel with the team.

The CBA also contains updated language on long-term injured reserve and how it can be used, particularly when it comes to adding players from LTIR to the roster for the postseason — Shilton

What’s the motivation for an 84-game season?

The new CBA expands the regular season to 84 games and reduces the exhibition season to four games per team. Players with 100 games played in their NHL careers can play in a maximum of two exhibition games. Players who competed in at least 50 games in the previous season will have a maximum of 13 days of training camp.

The NHL had an 84-game season from 1992 to 1994, when the league and NHLPA agreed to add two neutral-site games to every team’s schedule. But since 1995-96, every full NHL regular season has been 82 games.

For at least the past four years, the league has had internal discussions about adding two games to the schedule while decreasing the preseason. The current CBA restricted teams from playing more than 82 games, so expansion of the regular season required collective bargaining.

There was a functional motivation behind the increase in games: Currently, each team plays either three or four games against divisional opponents, for a total of 26 games; they play three games against non-divisional teams within their own conference, for a total of 24 games; and they play two games, home and away, against opponents from the other conference for a total of 32 games. Adding two games would allow teams to even out their divisional schedule, while swapping in two regular-season games — with regular-season crowd sizes and prices — for two exhibition games.

The reduction of the preseason would also give the NHL the chance to start the regular season earlier, perhaps in the last week of September. Obviously, given the grind of the current regular season and the playoffs, there’s concern about wear and tear on the players with two additional games. But the reduction of training camp and the exhibition season was appealing to players, and they signed off on the 84-game season in the new CBA. — Wyshynski

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How do the new long-term injured reserve rules work?

The practice of teams using long-term injured reserve (LTIR) to create late-season salary cap space — only to have the injured player return for the first game of the playoffs after sitting out game No. 82 of the regular season — tracks back to 2015. That’s when the Chicago Blackhawks used an injured Patrick Kane‘s salary cap space to add players at the trade deadline. Kane returned for the start of the first round, and eventually won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in their Stanley Cup win.

Since then, the NHL has seen teams such as the Tampa Bay Lightning (Nikita Kucherov 2020-21), Vegas Golden Knights (Mark Stone, 2023), Florida Panthers (Matthew Tkachuk, 2024) also use LTIR to their advantage en route to Stanley Cup wins.

The NHL has investigated each occurrence of teams using LTIR and then having players return for the playoffs, finding nothing actionable — although the league is currently investigating the Edmonton Oilers use of LTIR for Evander Kane, who sat out the regular season and returned in the first round of the most recent postseason.

Last year, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that if “the majority” of general managers wanted a change to this practice, the NHL would consider it. Some players weren’t happy about the salary cap loophole.

Ron Hainsey, NHLPA assistant executive director, said during the Stanley Cup Final that players have expressed concern at different times “either public or privately” about misuse of long-term injured reserve. He said that the NHL made closing that loophole “a priority for them” in labor talks.

Under the new CBA, the total salary and bonuses for “a player or players” that have replaced a player on LTIR may not exceed the amount of total salary and bonuses of the player they are replacing. For example: In 2024, the Golden Knights put winger Stone and his $9.5 million salary on LTIR, given that he was out because of a lacerated spleen. The Golden Knights added $10.8 million in salary to their cap before the trade deadline in defenseman Noah Hanifin and forwards Tomas Hertl and Anthony Mantha.

But the bigger tweak to the LTIR rule states that “the average amounts of such replacement player(s) may not exceed the prior season’s average league salary.” According to PuckPedia, the average player salary last season was $3,817,293, for example.

The CBA does allow an exception to these LTIR rules, with NHL and NHLPA approval, based on how much time the injured player is likely to miss. Teams can exceed these “average amounts,” but the injured player would be ineligible to return that season or in the postseason.

But the NHL and NHLPA doubled-down on discouraging teams from abusing LTIR to go over the salary cap in the Stanley Cup playoffs by establishing “playoff cap counting” for the first time. — Wyshynski

What is ‘playoff cap counting’ and how will it affect the postseason?

In 2021, the Carolina Hurricanes lost to Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference playoffs. That’s when defenseman Dougie Hamilton famously lamented that his team fell to a Lightning squad “that’s $18 million over the cap or whatever they are,” as Tampa Bay used Kucherov’s LTIR space in the regular season before he returned for the playoffs.

Even more famously, Kucherov wore a T-shirt that read “$18M OVER THE CAP” during their Stanley Cup championship celebration.

The NHL and NHLPA have attempted to put an end to this creative accounting — in combination with the new LTIR rules in the regular season — through a new CBA provision called “playoff cap counting.”

By 3 p.m. local time or five hours before a playoff game — whatever is earlier — teams will submit a roster of 18 players and two goaltenders to NHL Central Registry. There will be a “playoff playing roster averaged club salary” calculated for that roster that must be under the “upper limit” of the salary cap for that team. The “averaged club salary” is the sum of the face value averaged amounts of the player salary and bonuses for that season for each player on the roster, and all amounts charged to the team’s salary cap.

Teams can make changes to their rosters after that day’s deadline, provided they’ve cleared it with NHL Central Registry.

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The “upper limit” for an individual team is the leaguewide salary cap ceiling minus any cap penalties for contract buyouts; 35-plus players or players with one-way contracts demoted to the minor leagues; retained salary in trades; cap recapture penalties; or contract grievance settlements.

The cap compliance is only for the players participating in a given postseason game. As one NHL player agent told ESPN: “You can have $130 million in salaries on your total roster once the playoffs start, but the 18 players and two goalies that are on the ice must be cap-compliant.”

These rules will be in effect for the first two seasons of the new CBA (2026-28). After that, either the NHL or the NHLPA can reopen this section of the CBA for “good faith discussions about the concerns that led to the election to reopen and whether these rules could be modified in a manner that would effectively address such concerns.”

If there’s no resolution of those concerns, the “playoff cap counting” will remain in place for the 2028-29 season. — Wyshynski

Did the NHL CBA make neck guards mandatory?

Professional leagues around the world have adjusted their player equipment protection standards since Adam Johnson’s death in October 2023. Johnson, 29, was playing for the Nottingham Panthers of England’s Elite Ice Hockey League when he suffered a neck laceration from an opponent’s skate blade.

The AHL mandated cut-resistant neck protection for players and officials for the 2024-25 season. The IIHF did the same for international tournaments, while USA Hockey required all players under the age of 18 to wear them.

Now, the NHL and NHLPA have adjusted their standards for neck protection in the new CBA.

Beginning with the 2026-27 season, players who have zero games of NHL experience will be required to wear “cut-resistant protection on the neck area with a minimum cut level protection score of A5.” The ANSI/ISEA 105-2016 Standard rates neck guards on a scale from A1 to A9, and players are encouraged to seek out neck protection that’s better than the minimal requirement.

Players with NHL experience prior to the 2026-27 season will not be required to wear neck protection. — Wyshynski

What’s the new player dress code?

The NHL and NHLPA agreed that teams will no longer be permitted “to propose any rules concerning player dress code.”

Under the previous CBA, the NHL was the only North American major men’s pro sports league with a dress code specified through collective bargaining. Exhibit 14, Rule 5 read: “Players are required to wear jackets, ties and dress pants to all Club games and while traveling to and from such games unless otherwise specified by the Head Coach or General Manager.”

That rule was deleted in the new CBA.

The only requirement now for players is that they “dress in a manner that is consistent with contemporary fashion norms.”

Sorry, boys: No toga parties on game days. — Wyshynski

Does the new CBA cover the Olympics beyond 2026?

Yes. The NHL and NHLPA have committed to participate in the 2030 Winter Olympics, scheduled to be held in the French Alps. As usual, the commitment is ” subject to negotiation of terms acceptable to each of the NHL, NHLPA, IIHF and/or IOC.”

And as we saw with the 2022 Beijing Games, having a commitment in the CBA doesn’t guarantee NHL players on Olympic ice. — Wyshynski

Did the NHL end three-team salary retention trades?

It has become an NHL trade deadline tradition. One team retains salary on a player so he can fit under another team’s salary cap. But to make the trade happen, those teams invite a third team to the table to retain even more of that salary to make it work.

Like when the Lightning acquired old friend Yanni Gourde from the Seattle Kraken last season. Gourde made $5,166,667 against the cap. Seattle traded him to Detroit for defenseman Kyle Aucoin, and the Kraken retained $2,583,334 in salary. The Red Wings then retained $1,291,667 of Gourde’s salary in sending him to Tampa Bay for a fourth-round pick, allowing the Lightning to fit him under their cap.

Though the NHL will still allow retained salary transactions, there’s now a mandatory waiting period until that player’s salary can be retained in a second transaction. A second retained salary transaction may not occur within 75 regular-season days of the first retained salary transaction.

Days outside of the regular-season schedule do not count toward the required 75 regular-season days, and therefore the restriction might span multiple seasons, according to the CBA. — Wyshynski

Can players now endorse alcoholic beverages?

Yes. The previous CBA banned players from any endorsement or sponsorship of alcoholic beverages. That has been taken out of the new CBA. If only Bob Beers were still playing …

While players remain prohibited from any endorsement or sponsorship of tobacco products, a carryover from the previous CBA, they’re also banned from endorsement or sponsorship of “cannabis (including CBD) products.” — Wyshynski

What are the new parameters for Emergency Goaltender Replacement?

The NHL is making things official with the emergency backup goaltender (EBUG) position.

In the past, that third goalie spot went to someone hanging out in the arena during a game, ready to jump in for either team if both of their own goaltenders were injured or fell ill during the course of play. Basically, it was a guy in street clothes holding onto the dream of holding down an NHL crease.

Now, the league has given permanent status to the EBUG role. That player will travel with and practice for only one club. But there are rules involved in their employment.

This CBA designates that to serve as a team’s emergency goaltender replacement, the individual cannot have played an NHL game under an NHL contract, appeared in more than 80 professional hockey games, have been in professional hockey within the previous three seasons, have a contractual obligation that would prevent them from fulfilling their role as the EBUG or be on the reserve or restricted free agent list of an NHL club.

Teams must submit one designated EBUG 48 hours before the NHL regular season starts. During the season, teams can declare that player 24 hours before a game. — Shilton

What’s the deal with eliminating deferred salaries?

The new CBA will prohibit teams from brokering deferred salary arrangements, meaning players will be paid in full during the contract term lengths. This is meant to save players from financial uncertainty and makes for simplified contract structures with the club.

There are examples of players who had enormous signing bonuses paid up front or had structured their deals to include significant payouts when they ended. Both tactics could serve to lower an individual’s cap hit over the life of a deal. Now that won’t be an option for teams or players to use in negotiations. — Shilton

What’s different about contract lengths?

Starting under the new CBA, the maximum length of a player contract will go from eight years to seven years if he’s re-signing with the same club, and down to just six years (from the current seven) if he signs with a new team.

So, for example, a player coming off his three-year, entry-level contract could re-sign only with that same team for up to seven years, and he’ll become an unrestricted free agent sooner than the current agreement would allow.

This could benefit teams that have signed players to long-term contracts that didn’t age well (for whatever reason) as they won’t be tied as long to that decision. And for players, it can help preserve some of their prime years if they want to move on following a potential 10 (rather than 11) maximum seasons with one club. — Shilton

What does the new league minimum salary look like? How does it compare to the other men’s professional leagues?

Under the new CBA, the minimum salary for an NHL player will rise from $775,000 to $1 million by the end of the four-year agreement. Although gradual, it is a significant rise for a league in which the salary cap presents more challenges compared to its counterparts.

For example, the NHL will see its salary cap rise to $95.5 million in 2025-26, compared to that of the NFL in which Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s highest three-year average is $61.6 million.

So how does the new NHL minimum salary upon the CBA’s completion compare to its counterparts in the Big 4?

The NBA league minimum for the 2025-26 season is $1.4 million for a rookie, while players with more than 10 years can earn beyond $3.997 million in a league that has a maximum of 15 roster spots

The NFL, which has a 53-player roster, has a league minimum of $840,000 for rookies in 2025, while a veteran with more than seven years will earn $1.255 million.

MLB’s CBA, which expires after the 2026 season, has the minimum salary for the 2025 season set at $760,000, and that figure increases to $780,000 next season. — Clark

Is this Gary Bettman’s final CBA as commissioner?

Possibly. The Athletic reported in January that the board of governors had begun planning for Bettman’s eventual retirement “in a couple of years,” while starting the process to find his successor.

Bettman became the NHL’s first commissioner in 1993, and has the distinction of being the longest-serving commissioner among the four major men’s professional leagues in North America. He is also the oldest. Bettman turned 73 in June, while contemporaries Roger Goodell, Rob Manfred and Adam Silver are all in their early- to mid-60s.

That’s not to suggest he couldn’t remain in place. There is a precedent of commissioners across those leagues who remained in those respective roles into their 70s. Ford Frick, who served as the third commissioner of MLB, was 71 when he stepped down in 1965. There are more recent examples than Frick, as former NBA commissioner David Stern stepping down in 2014 when he was 71, and former MLB commissioner Bud Selig stepped down in 2015 at age 80. — Clark

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon said they went on the run to avoid their newborn being removed after their four older children were taken into care.

“There was no way I was going to part with my child,” Marten told the jury at the Old Bailey. 

“We were hiding from the entire British public because I was worried about Victoria being taken.”

The couple said the death of baby Victoria was a tragic accident and denied wrongdoing, but were found guilty of perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, and child cruelty last year after an Old Bailey trial lasting almost five months.

The jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on other outstanding counts.

Gordon, 51, and Marten, 38, have now been found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.

Prosecutors said as soon as Marten realised she was pregnant with her fifth child, she and Gordon started planning to “go dark” so they could conceal the birth from the authorities and keep the baby.

A national manhunt was launched in January 2023 when a placenta was found in their burnt-out car – a search that would end almost two months later in a disused shed where Victoria’s body was found in a carrier bag, two days after her parents were arrested.

Marten comes from a wealthy family of landowners with links to the Royal Family and met Gordon around 2014.

The couple had four children between 2017 and 2021 before Marten became pregnant with Victoria in 2022, and the couple decided to go on the run. Marten claimed her older children were “stolen by the state” and her “number one priority” was to protect Victoria.

Why were the couple’s older children taken into care?

Social services were involved with the family from Marten’s first pregnancy in the winter of 2017. Social workers were concerned the couple had been living in a “freezing” tent where they planned to take the newborn, despite it being “wholly inappropriate for a baby”.

Hours after the baby was born, Gordon attacked two female police officers who had been called to the maternity ward over concerns about the parents’ identity after the pair gave fake names.

An interim care order was made. This can only be issued if a child has suffered or is at risk of suffering significant harm, and gives the local authority shared parental responsibility so it can make decisions about the child’s welfare and where they live. 

Marten and her child were placed in several temporary mother and baby placements – the first in a series of care interventions throughout her children’s lives. 

She sought advice from an “expert” in evading social services about how to keep her children after a domestic violence incident between her and Gordon in 2019.

The expert told her to flee to Ireland, and she stayed there until a court order in December 2019 forced her to return. In January 2020, two children were taken into care, and an emergency protection order was made when their third child was born a few months later.

In January 2022, a family court judge ruled the couple’s four children should be adopted. 

An incident of domestic violence played a part in this decision, as the judge weighed up the risk to the children of being exposed to serious physical violence.

At that point, it had been four months since the parents had been to a contact session with their three older children.

‘Mummy and daddy cancelled again’

The judge said the quality of contact was “excellent” when they attended – but there were a “huge” number of missed sessions. 

One child was described as “inconsolable” when the parents failed to turn up at the contact centre, telling nursery staff: “Mummy and Daddy cancelled again.”

In ruling the children should be adopted, the judge found as well as “inconsistent” contact, arrangements for antenatal and postnatal care were not appropriate, and the children were put at risk by the potential for domestic violence and their parents’ decision to evade the local authority when it was investigating the children’s wellbeing in late 2019.

Would the older children being in care have automatically meant Victoria was removed?

Older children being in care does not automatically mean a newborn baby is removed – but it will often trigger a pre-birth assessment, explains Cathy Ashley, chief executive at the charity Family Rights Group.

“The assessment has to look at what the previous concerns were, why did those children go into care, why were they removed from their parents? It also has to look at the current situation,” she says.

If a local authority believes a newborn is at significant risk, it can apply for an interim care order. In reality, this is often on the day of birth (court orders cannot be sought before that because an unborn baby is not a legal entity). 

A family court judge must consider each case on merit to decide the best long-term care option, Lisa Harker, director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, says. 

But if a significant risk of harm has meant older children have been removed, it will be a “challenge” for someone to prove they are now able to parent, she tells Sky News.

That is unless there has been a major change in their life such as a new partner, having had therapy, changing levels of addiction, or improvements in mental health.

But parents are often given little support to make those changes, Ms Harker says: “So how do you demonstrate your life has improved and you’re more able to parent than you were?

“People do demonstrate it, but it is difficult.”

What did the couple say about their children being taken into care?

Marten told the jury of the first trial she and Gordon were moving every one to three days while she was pregnant with Victoria “so she would not be taken”.

“I wanted Victoria with me for the first three to six months of her life so I could give her the love that she needs because I don’t think it’s fair for any children to be removed from her parents,” she said.

“A mother’s love for her child is incredibly strong,” she told the jury.

At the retrial, she explained they moved between places “because I didn’t want one single authority to have jurisdiction over my daughter, so if we kept moving, they couldn’t take her”.

Speaking to Sky News, senior crown prosecutor Samantha Yellend said the prosecution did not dispute the love the parents had for their children.

“It wasn’t our case that they didn’t love their children and there weren’t times where they were loving towards them.

“It was our case that when decisions had to be made in relation to them or the children they often pick themselves over that.”

After finding out she was pregnant with her fifth child, Marten’s plan was to go abroad, jurors were told.

She said: “Get away from this country and the services and my family but unfortunately there were preventatives from going abroad.”

Marten added that “Plan B” was to remain in the UK but “lay low”.

When asked to elaborate, Marten told the court she wanted to keep Victoria until she was three months old, then give her to a carer “who could then try and get her abroad”.

She told the court she would have paid the person to get Victoria out of the UK. She said: “It would have been a carer, a nanny or something. If there is a will there is a way, you can always find someone to help.”

What advice did Marten get about evading social services?

Marten told the jury she sought help from Ian Josephs, who advises parents on how to evade and oppose social services – including sometimes giving expectant mothers financial help to flee to Ireland, France and Northern Cyprus.

Mr Josephs says he has advised thousands of women since starting his website in 2003, and represented parents in court against local authorities as early as the 1960s (the former councillor is not a lawyer and a 1989 law prevents non-professionals from representing clients in court).

He tells Sky News he recalls talking to Marten when she had two children and was “desperate” to stop them being taken into care.

His advice to her at the time: “Get the hell out of there. Get to Ireland.”

This would not break any laws, he told her, and social services there would be more likely to let the family stay together than authorities in England.

Mr Josephs says Marten followed his advice and lived “successfully” in Ireland for a period, but had her children taken back into care when a court order meant she had to return to England.

She was acting out of desperation both when she called him and when she went on the run with Victoria, he says.

“If your child runs into the middle of the road when a lorry is coming and you’re trying to save it… that’s the sort of frame of mind she was in, to try and save a child from being taken, not run over by a lorry, but taken by social services, which is nearly as bad.”

While Mr Josephs’ website includes testimonials from mothers praising his approach, his methods are unpopular with those who believe social services should maintain oversight of children who could be at risk.

Can social services just take a child?

“There’s a misconception that social workers can just remove your children,” Ms Ashley of Family Rights Group says. 

“Of course they can’t.”

There are only three scenarios in which a child can be removed from their parents or a person with parental responsibility.

The first is if a parent voluntarily agrees to it, and the second is if police take them temporarily into police protection for a maximum of 72 hours. 

The third is the most common scenario and involves the court making a temporary order – either an interim care order or an emergency protection order. 

For this to be granted, the court must be satisfied a child has suffered or is at risk of suffering significant harm.

“It is not a decision taken lightly,” Ms Ashley says. 

Significant harm could mean the child being abused or neglected. In the case of an unborn baby, perhaps the mother hasn’t engaged with antenatal care or uses substances. 

It is a bit of a “grey area” where the worry is about future risk rather than immediate harm, Ms Harker adds. 

She gives examples of what that might look like: “This might not be an environment where a child will thrive, where there’s concerns about neglect, a chaotic lifestyle or the ability to provide a safe, warm, damp-free home for a child. 

“That child might not be at risk of immediate harm but the local authority fears for their future safety, their future wellbeing.”

The temporary orders last until the court makes a decision about longer-term care, which must be guided by the principle that – if it is safe – children are best cared for by their parents or within their family, Ms Ashley says. 

“If it wasn’t possible, legally, children’s services have to consider family and friends before they would look at unrelated carers.”

A social worker will provide a report assessing the parents’ capacity to care for their children, and a psychologist may also do the same. The judge will consider this in making their decision.

How were Marten’s family involved?

Marten’s father made an application for wardship in December 2019, when Marten and Gordon had two children. When this application was granted, it meant Marten had to return from Ireland.

These types of applications are “very rare”, retired social worker Andrew Reece tells Sky News.

It does not mean the children’s grandfather was applying to be their guardian. Rather, he was applying for them to become wards of the court.

This means the High Court can be appointed the child’s supreme legal guardian and must approve any significant step in the child’s life.

An application for wardship is different to kinship care, which is when a friend or relative who is not the parent cares for a child.

Wardship proceedings are only used when the usual processes of care orders are not sufficient.

In this case, the local authority initiated care proceedings for the children the month after the wardship application.

Marten told the jury her family considered her children an “embarrassment” because they don’t come from the same “upper class privileged background”.

She said her family would “try to get my children taken off me” and “refused to take them in when they were put up for adoption”.

She claimed she was “cut off overnight” while heavily pregnant with her first child and fled to Wales.

“I had to escape my family because my family are extremely oppressive and bigoted and wouldn’t allow me to have children with my husband,” Marten said.

“They would do anything to erase that child from the family line, which is what they did end up doing.”

In an audio appeal made while the couple were on the run, Marten’s father Napier Marten said the family had lived “in great concern”.

Her mother Virginie de Selliers, who attended the start of her daughter’s first trial, said in an open letter: “You have made choices in your personal adult life which have proven to be challenging, however I respect them, I know that you want to keep your precious newborn child at all costs.”

Is it common for parents to have recurrent children taken into care?

The “trauma and grief” of having a child removed at birth often leads to recurrent care proceedings, Ms Harker says.

“The chance of seeking solace from a future pregnancy is very high.

“We know from our research that 50% of newborn babies who are subject to care proceedings are the children of mothers who have previously had children subject to care proceedings.”

The risk is strongest in the first three years after the removal of a baby and it is more likely with young mothers and where the newborn has been adopted.

But there is a positive side, she says: “Where we know there are services that are able to support families who have had a child removed, you can see that there is a reduced risk of that happening.”

Four people have died after a plane crashed and exploded shortly after taking off from London Southend Airport.

The medical transport plane had dropped off a patient and was beginning its journey back to the Netherlands when it crashed at about 3.48pm on Sunday.

Two Dutch pilots and a Chilean nurse were among those on board, according to a passenger listing document.

The deceased were all foreign nationals, Essex Police said.

John Johnson, who was at the airport with his wife and children, said he saw a “big fireball” exploding across the sky as the plane plunged “head first into the ground”.

“We all waved at the pilots, and they all waved back at us,” he said.

“The aircraft then turned 180 degrees to face its take-off, powered up [and] rolled down the runway.

“It took off and about three or four seconds [later] it started to bank heavily to its left, and then within a few seconds of that happening, it more or less inverted and crashed just head first into the ground.”

Mr Johnson added: “There was a big fireball. Obviously, everybody was in shock [after] witnessing it.”

Chief Superintendent Morgan Cronin said the plane “got into difficulty” shortly after taking off and “crashed within the airport boundary”.

He added: “Sadly, we can now confirm that all four people on board died.

“We are working to officially confirm their identities. At this stage, we believe all four are foreign nationals.”

Southend Airport said it would be “closed until further notice” and urged people to contact their airlines.

Its staff are “working closely with the emergency services and air accident investigators”.

Zeusch Aviation, based at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands, confirmed its flight SUZ1 had been “involved in an accident” at the airport and its thoughts were with “everyone who has been affected”.

It has been reported that the plane involved is a Beech B200 Super King Air with twin-propellers.

According to flight-tracker Flightradar, it took off at 3.48pm and was bound for Lelystad in the Netherlands.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said it is investigating the incident “involving an aircraft near Southend Airport”.

“A multi-disciplinary team including inspectors with expertise in aircraft operations, human factors, engineering and recorded data arrived at the accident site yesterday afternoon. Enquiries are ongoing today,” a spokesperson added.

‘Airport was in lockdown’

Wren Stranix, 16, from Woodbridge in Suffolk, was in another aircraft waiting to take off for Newquay, Cornwall, with her family and boyfriend when the plane came down.

They watched from their aircraft as the emergency services arrived and were not able to leave their seats.

“The flight attendant didn’t know what was going on,” she told Sky News. “They said the plane had exploded and they didn’t know if it was safe or not. The airport was in lockdown.”

They were eventually allowed back in the terminal to wait before all flights were cancelled.

Southend Airport said the incident involved “a general aviation aircraft”.

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After the incident, EasyJet – one of just a few airlines that uses the airport – said all of its remaining flights to and from Southend had been “diverted to alternative airports or are no longer able to operate”.

The airline said it has contacted customers who were due to travel on Sunday. Anyone due to fly on Monday should check online for up-to-date information, it added.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said four crews, along with off-road vehicles, have attended the scene.

The East of England Ambulance Service said four ambulances, four hazardous area response team vehicles and an air ambulance had been sent to the incident.

David Burton-Sampson, the MP for Southend West and Leigh, asked people to keep away from the area and “allow the emergency services to do their work” in a post on social media.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “monitoring the situation closely and receiving regular updates”.

Essex Police asked anyone with information or footage to get in touch.

Chief Superintendent Morgan Cronin said: “In these very early stages it is vital we gather the information we need, and continue supporting the people of Essex.”

He added: “We are working closely with all at the scene, as well as the Air Accident Investigation Branch, to establish what has happened today and why.”