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The 10-seater Cessna C-90 aircraft, with Congress MP Madhavrao Scindia, four journalists and Scindia's private secretary Rupinder Singh on board, left Delhi at 1239 hours on Sunday on its way to Kanpur.
Scindia was traveling to Kanpur to address a rally in connection with the Parivartan Yatra organised by the Congress ahead of the assembly election in Uttar Pradesh next year.
The Cessna crashed at Bhogaon in Mainpuri district, 200 km away from Lucknow, when its engine reportedly caught fire, UP Additional Director General of Police A K Mitra said.
Union Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said the aircraft lost contact with Lucknow's air traffic control around 1330 hours.
Confirming the death of Scindia and seven others, Mainpuri district police chief Sridhar Pathak told PTI that the plane burst into flames after it nosedived into a field when the engine caught fire.
All eight bodies recovered near the site were charred beyond recognition, he said.
Inclement weather and poor visibility appeared to have been among the causes of the crash, he said.
Heavy rains have lashed the district since Sunday morning and power failure hampered the operations to recover the bodies and the Cessna's black box of the plane, Pathak said.
Agencies
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