
Nurse Maria Fernanda Rojas Ortiz who died in Southend plane crash 'was on first day in job'
Maria Fernanda Rojas Ortiz, 31, was on board the private medical jet that went down in flames after shortly after take-off on Sunday.
Originally from Chile, Ms Ortiz was a German national, and is believed to have been on her first day on the job, according to reports.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise 7,500 euros for her family to help with the costs of repatriation and funeral services.
Organiser Julia Estaben wrote on the fundraising page: "The death of our beloved Feña, in a tragic accident is still under investigation by the authorities.
"In the midst of this difficult time, we want to organize ourselves to support her family. This process entails many unexpected expenses - transfers, paperwork, possible travel, and everything necessary to give her a proper send-off."
The medical transport plane bound for the Netherlands crashed at around 3.48pm.
According to a document that lists passengers, Ms Ortiz was on board along with two Dutch pilots, who also died.
It is believed the fourth passenger was another nurse.
The team had dropped off a patient in Southend and was due to return to its base in the Netherlands.
Zeusch Aviation, based at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands, said in a statement on Monday: "It is with deep sadness that we confirm there were no survivors among the people on board flight SUZ1.
"Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the victims, their families, and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time."
"Zeusch Aviation continues to fully cooperate with the relevant investigative authorities and is providing all possible support to those affected.'Witnesses told of seeing a 'fireball', while images of fire and black smoke were shared on social media.
Lisa Fitzsimons of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said it was "too early to speculate' on what may have caused the crash.
London Southend Airport remains closed on Tuesday.
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Daily Record
23 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Stalker who harassed family of Lockerbie cop in charge of £357k Gaza fundraiser
Susan McNarey conducted a chilling two year stalking campaign on the family of the late Sir John Orr, claiming they had an affair and collaborated together to find cure for coronavirus. A woman who stalked the family of a top cop and his family is running a GoFundMe campaign for Gaza babies that has collected more than £357,000. Susan McNarey, 61, orchestrated a harassment campaign against the family of the late police chief Sir John Orr, who was in charge of the Lockerbie bomb inquiry. A sheriff at Dumfries Sheriff Court ordered McNarey to get urgent mental health treatment after she was put on trial over the stalking campaign in 2022. But after spending time in hospital, McNarey emerged to set up The Gaza Team, which claims to help hundreds of babies in the crisis zone stay alive. Sources close to the John Orr case claim McNarey's recent history makes her unsuitable to administer such sums of cash, with no proper scrutiny or accountability. One said: 'Sir John's family have been distressed to hear that this woman has raised such a massive amount of money after what they were put through. 'McNarey was lurking around their father's grave at a time when the family had gathered to pay their respects. She left a wreath with a disturbing message and seemed to believe the tangled story she had created in her own head. 'The Crown Office made clear that McNarey would be forced to seek psychiatric help.' Cash donated to a GoFundMe page goes straight to McNarey, who also collects further large sums direct to her Paypal account. She claims that every penny goes directly to supplying aid. McNarey appalled members of the Orr family after she turned up at the grave of the senior lawman - who was the former chief constable of Strathclyde Police - leaving a creepy wreath at the same time his loved ones had gathered to pay respects. She was accused of writing letters and emails that made wild claims about Orr, claiming she had an affair with him and that they collaborated together with their own experiments to find a cure for coronavirus. In a stalking campaign of more than two years, McNarey falsely claimed Sir John, who died in 2018 at 72, had been involved in torture, rape, human trafficking and prostitution. She claimed in court that Sir John's detective son paid to have her and her daughter attacked. But after being hit with a five year Non-Harassment Order against victims, McNarey emerged from hospital and set up the fundraiser for The Gaza Team, which she runs from her new home in Turkey. On the GoFundMe page, McNarey, 61, claims to be an expert in 'disaster management'. She writes: 'Hello, I'm Susan from Scotland, trained in disaster management and organising supply chains in areas of genocide, war, poverty and pandemic. 'Our pro-active ground teams in Gaza organise the regular distribution of baby formula, the daily cooking and distribution of food to displaced babies, orphans & children who would otherwise have starved. 'Join with us. We are all Gaza Team. YOU CAN SAVE A PALESTINIAN CHILDS LIFE TODAY.' Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. McNarey adds: 'Our Gaza Team Baby Milk Distribution Program, providing regular baby milk for more than 330 babies.' Her Facebook page claims to have recently delivered 100 tonnes of baby milk formula to Gaza, despite an Israeli blockade. On Facebook, McNarey's claims have been widely challenged and she has been accused of ignoring or blocking those who are critical of her. At Dumfries Sheriff Court in 2022, McNarey sacked her lawyer and conducted her own defence. Sir John's sons - both police detectives - gave testimony against McNarey at court. McNarey, who ran a wood burning stove business in Ayrshire, claimed in court she worked in 'counter terrorism' for Margaret Thatcher's government between 1985 and 1988 and also had experience in 'disaster planning operations' from time spent in China. McNarey told the court: 'My defence is I'm trying to prevent deaths from coronavirus. The information I carry is life-threatening and onerous and correct.' The court heard she regularly visited the grave of Sir John and left sunflowers and notes signed 'Eva'. McNarey claimed she and Sir John jointly engaged in 'virological work' and carried out experiments into coronaviruses between 2005 and 2013. The fantasist also claimed she was the victim of an attempted murder after being set upon by '17 black belts' in 1993 while with a police surveillance officer, while carrying out investigations into Lockerbie. She alleged she was in a relationship with Sir John in the 1980s and the pair stayed together at a cottage in Cumbria. David Moran, a retired police detective who was a neighbour to McNarey's adoptive parents in Glasgow's Jordanhill, told the court McNarey contacted him repeatedly in 2019 in person and by letter. He told the court: 'You just need to read the letters to see it's all just nonsense, it was fantasy.' Despite taking the stand during the trial in 2022, McNarey was deemed unfit to stand trial. Sheriff Speir nonetheless held an Evidence of Facts Hearing over two days and believed it to be proven that McNarey engaged in a course of conduct that caused fear and alarm towards the sons of John Orr between June 2018 and September 2020 in Glasgow and at a cemetery in Kilmarnock. The Sheriff granted a Compulsion Order for 6 months, meaning that, due to the mental illness of the accused, she could not be sent to prison but must stay in hospital for treatment or have treatment in the community. The Sheriff also granted a Non Harassment Order for five years, ordering McNarey to keep away from the Orr brothers and another victim. Sir John Orr was back in the spotlight recently in the major drama about Lockerbie, where he was played by Peter Mullan. Sir John led the investigation into the terrorist atrocity on Pan Am Flight 103 that killed 270 people in December 1988. The former Kilmarnock chairman and grandad of eight was knighted by the Queen in 2001 for his services to policing. McNarey now claims to be based in Istanbul, Turkey, and claims her missionary work has led to serious illness and near death from exhaustion. In response to questions about how the money is spent, she claims to have sold a block of flats in Kilmarnock to fund her life. On Facebook, many cautionary posts have been made about The Gaza Team. When the Daily Record called McNarey, she said the funds from GoFundMe - and far more - was channelled through her own bank account to aid workers in Gaza. She said: 'We have two teams on the ground and we have clear evidence that our funds are directly saving the lives of babies in Gaza. 'If you write anything about this you will be killing babies in Gaza.' McNarey later sent several emails which revealed her ongoing obsession with the Lockerbie bombing, which she still believes she has crucial knowledge of. She also made further unsubstantiated claims about Sir John Orr. McNarey said her disaster planning expertise was gained at a college in Israel many years ago.


Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
I've been left homeless and living out of hotels with my baby after a drunk driver crashed into my living room just moments after I changed his nappy - we're lucky to be alive
Dressed in her pyjamas and enjoying a quiet Sunday morning with her baby and partner, Stacey Sibbald-Wright's life was torn apart when a car smashed through her front room. Just moments before, the doting mother had been changing her 10-month-old baby near the window and Ms Sibbald-Wright revealed if the shocking incident had happened just 10 minutes earlier, they could've been killed. Now six weeks later, the family of three are homeless and relying on friends and family to support them as they burn through their life savings in an ongoing dispute with insurance companies. Reduced to living in hotels, the mother-of-one has been forced to buy new baby clothes and live off takeaway meals while she continues to pay rent on a home she can not longer live in. Her family have now launched a GoFundMe to help with the costs of living in hotels and caravans as their home is repaired. Last month Ms Sibbald-Wright, 36, from North Shields outside Newcastle was shocked to find her living room destroyed by a drunk driver who crashed in to her house. At 9am on Sunday morning Ms Sibbald-Wright heard a loud crash downstairs and at first believed a cupboard had fallen off the wall. But she was shocked to find dust covering everything and a car though her living room windows. She said: 'It was me and my baby and my partner all in the house at nine o'clock, and then we heard this massive bang. 'I thought a cupboard had fallen off. I went downstairs and there was just dust everywhere, just covering everything. You couldn't see anything.' Ms Sibbald-Wright explained she and her family had had a lucky escape as just 10 minutes before the crash she had been changing her baby by the window while her two dogs ran around. 'Ten minutes before, I changed my baby by the window and then we were out in the garden. And then we went upstairs with the baby. I called the dogs in. My partner was in the in the front room and then there was the front end of a car in it. Ms Sibbald-Wright said she struggled to process what was happening at first and said she looked through the hole in her house and noticed a man in a car with 'a slight graze on his nose'. The mother added that initially the driver tried to run away but was apprehended by neighbours who pinned him down until the police arrived. After the emergency services came, Ms Sibbald-Wright said she and her family were ushered out, still in their pyjamas and without any support. 'I went and got my my little boy, and we went out the back, but the police ushered us out and I was in my pyjamas,' she said. 'We weren't allowed to grab anything.' As Ms Sibbald-Wright came to terms with the scene in her living room, she told the Daily Mail how the driver of the car that had destroyed her home was 'staggering around'. The shocked mother described the scene as 'really insane' and added that the police arrested the driver but the family are still processing the horrifying ordeal. Following the crash, Ms Sibbald-Wright and her family have been living in hotels and relying on the kindness of family and friends but she told the Daily Mail that less than two months after the incident, she is already in her eighth hotel and has been having to fund the temporary accommodation from her own pocket. She revealed: 'We've had to fund it all ourselves, straight up. The insurance are paying it back, but we've had to pay up front. 'We had a tiny, tiny little pot of savings, because I'm on maternity leave, so I've got no income at all. So we had a tiny, tiny pot of savings, and that's just all gone on trying to fund accommodation, fund food. Just fund everything really. The family initially lived at a local Premier Inn for five days before Ms Sibbald-Wright sourced a caravan for them for a couple of days. But she said it has been challenging and she has been trying to live as meagerly as possible. 'We were in the Premier Inn for five days, and then I managed to source a caravan for a couple of days. So we've just moved and moved and moved. 'The thing is, we live in a seaside holiday resort in in Whitley Bay, and it's summer as well, so we have just had to go with what's available, really. 'And the insurance said that we can't really spend too much. I've been looking for discount codes. 'We've been in caravans most of the time, the eight moves has been really difficult. She added: 'One of the worst things is you leave at 10am and you can't check in anywhere till 4pm so we're just hanging around in restaurants spending money we don't have to wait until we can check into the next place.' The mother also revealed that she is still paying the rent and bills on her home and was told by the insurance that if she stopped, her accommodation wouldn't be subsidised. She said: 'We're still paying all the rent and the bills and we were just told to keep paying, otherwise they wouldn't fund any separate accommodation. So we're currently funding a house that we don't actually live in.' The worried mother added that the family have now run out of money and just after they were forced to move out, she claims their home was robbed with expensive tools including drills and a lawnmower pilfered by thieves. She said: 'We're at the point now where we've got no money left at all. We've got no income that a couple of days after as well, the property wasn't secured, and we got looted'. Ms Sibbald-Wright confessed that the worst part of the entire ordeal was having the tools from her back garden stolen and she described feeling 'really violated' by the ordeal. She added that her family have been helpful but can only do so much living in Northampton and that her maternity leave has been very difficult. Despite the terrible experience, the Newcastle upon Tyne native said she is relieved no one was hurt and confessed that if the car had crashed in to her home just ten minutes earlier her family would have been 'crushed' and her baby possibly killed. She said: 'Everybody kept saying, "God, you're so lucky" and just ten minutes before, I was changing my baby on the table. 'If me and my partner were at the table, we would have just been crushed. And if my dogs were in the garden, in the toilet, they would have been crushed too'.


Metro
14 hours ago
- Metro
This UFO and Bigfoot expert is the latest person to join Reform UK
A former MEP who has written books on topics as diverse as Bigfoot, Jack the Ripper and the aliens of Area 51 has been announced as the latest recruit to Reform UK. Rupert Matthews is the author of more than 170 books, according to his page on Amazon – though his specialist subjects are history and the paranormal. Among his most popular works are 'Sasquatch: North America's Enduring Mystery', 'Alien Encounters: Extraordinary Tales of Strange Phenomena', and 'Haunted York'. This morning, he was unveiled as the latest defection from the Conservatives to Reform in a press conference hosted by Nigel Farage. As the serving police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland, Matthews becomes the first Reform figure to serve in that role. He told the press event he was aiming to remove a 'dark heart of wokeness' from the criminal justice system and accused British politicians of taking inspiration from 'countries like Lebanon and Libya'. Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here. Matthews said: 'I daily face a fight against crime. 'I see ordinary, hard-working people burgled, robbed and mugged. Shoplifting is getting out of control. Anti-social behaviour is turning too many of our town centres into an apocalyptic wasteland of lawless Britain.' He has served in his current position since 2021, and had a seat in the European Parliament for the Tories before that. Matthews told the event he had been a member of the Conservatives for 40 years. In 2011, the long-time Eurosceptic suggested the European Commission could technically send military force into the UK against the British government's wishes. In an interview at the Conservative Party Conference, he said: 'Were there to be massive riots in London, or there were to be all sorts of problems, they could go to the German government and say, 'Please send us a Panzer division.' 'If the German government said yes, then the European Commission could send that Panzer division to London and there's nothing the British government could do about it.' A spokesperson for No 10 said: 'Their big defection is very interested in the fantastical and the unexplained. 'It's no surprise who's added Reform's fiscal plans to that list.' Hello, I'm Craig Munro and I'm Metro's man in Westminster. Every Wednesday, I write our Alright, Gov? newsletter with insights from behind the scenes in the Houses of Parliament – and how the decisions made there will end up affecting you. This week we had a look at the impact of the government's big announcement on recognising Palestinian statehood – and answered a question from a reader about how petitions work. Click here to sign up At today's event, Farage also announced Vanessa Frake-Harris – the former prison governor of Wormwood Scrubs – as a member of its law and order taskforce. More Trending She said: 'Our prisons are in a crisis caused by Labour and the Conservatives. What have their solutions been? They have let out 10,000 prisoners out of jail early. 'To let criminals out of jail before they even serve their full sentence is a disgrace.' Both new recruits were announced as part of a weeks-long series of events focusing on crime and justice organised by Reform over parliamentary recess. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Risk and reward, Trump's Mini-Me and planting trees for the planet MORE: Labour's love lost in less than a year but will electoral reform rescue it? MORE: From defending free speech to dictating the media, readers discuss the Online Safety Act