Lucknow, Sept. 30 :    Lucknow, Sept. 30:  Black Sunday revisits to pluck out leader in his prime Tragedy struck the Congress on another Black Sunday as one of its most charismatic and popular leaders Madhavrao Scindia died in an air crash near Kanpur this afternoon. Scindia, 56, was to be the star attraction at the Congress' parivartan rally in Kanpur. He never reached the site. Around 1.30 pm, the Cessna C-90 - supposed to be one of the safest 'all-weather' small planes - carrying eight people, lost contact with the Lucknow air traffic control. Bad weather dogging the plane, pilot R. Gautam asked the ATC for 'direction'. That was the last that was heard of the Cessna. The aircraft crashed soon after in a waterlogged field in Motta village in Mainpuri, 160 km from Kanpur. The 10-seater Cessna, belonging to Jindal Strips, was to land at Kanpur at 1.50 pm. Apart from pilot Gautam, six others were accompanying Scindia: his personal secretary Rupinder Singh, co-pilot Ritu Mallik, The Indian Express journalist Sanjiv Sinha, Aaj Tak correspondent Ranjan Jha, cameraman Gopal Singh Bisht and Anju Sharma of The Hindustan Times. Scindia, the scion of the Gwalior royal family, is the second Congress leader to die in a mishap in the recent past. Rajesh Pilot was killed in a road accident near Jaipur on June 11 last year, which was also a Sunday. Scindia's death, like Pilot's, is a severe blow to the party which has few articulate leaders with popular appeal. Reports from Mainpuri police said all eight persons on board had died as 'looking at the condition of the plane and the charred debris scattered around it, it could not be possible for anyone to survive'. The police added that seven bodies that have been recovered till now could not be identified as they were charred beyond recognition. The eighth body was found after a frantic search amid the debris and the pools of water. Though the Kanpur and Lucknow ATCs have not as yet been able to give the exact time of the crash or the reason for it, the Mainpuri police, quoting eyewitnesses at Motta, said that even before the plane crashlanded in the fields, it had erupted into a 'ball of fire'. Deputy director, air safety, P. Shaw, has arrived to begin investigations into the crash. There was confusion at the site with everyone, from senior Congressmen to police and administrative officials, giving 'strict instructions' to the police to 'wait' for them. With rain lashing the area, the rescue and relief operations have also been hindered. The bodies lay for hours as police sources said it was impossible to reach the place by car since all approach roads were waterlogged. The bodies were taken to Agra by road and would later be flown to New Delhi by a special air force plane. Union minister Arun Jaitley is accompanying the bodies. Some members of the Scindia family were expected to reach Kanpur before heading for the Mainpuri village where the plane crashed. The funeral will be held in Gwalior on Wednesday. The Congress, which had recently stepped up its election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, said all programmes stood cancelled 'as of now'. Barely able to speak, spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh said Scindia had earlier in the day confirmed his participation in the parivartan rally. 'He was to land around 2 pm and meet UPCC chief Sriprakash Jaiswal,' Singh said. 'He was looking forward to addressing the rally in the evening. We had left no stone unturned to tout him as our star attraction, which he always used to be,' he added. Scindia, himself a trained pilot like Pilot, was elected to Parliament nine times since 1971 and had served as minister for civil aviation, human resources development and railways in a political career spanning three decades. He was also a sports enthusiast and had served as the president of the Indian cricket board. Scindia began his career when he won the Guna Lok Sabha seat as an Independent backed by the Jan Sangh but switched to the Congress soon after. He is survived by wife Madhavi Raje, son Jyotiraditya and a daughter. He lost his mother Vijayaraje, a BJP leader, in January this year. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar had a providential escape after a last-minute change in travel plans. While Dikshit had fever, Aiyar was requested by Scindia to stay back to accommodate a journalist.