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Cabinet minister, 3 others die in Paraguay plane crash

July 26, 2018 GMT

Rescue workers search the crash site of a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron in Ayolas, Paraguay, Thursday, July 26, 2018. Paraguay's agriculture minister and three other people have died in the crash of the small plane, that went down in a marshy area shortly after taking off Wednesday night from the airport in Ayolas. (Photo by Roque Gonzalez Vera/ABC Color via AP)

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguay’s agriculture minister and three other people have died in the crash of a small plane.

Civil Aeronautics official Ruben Aguilar says the twin-engine Beechcraft Baron went down in a marshy area shortly after taking off Wednesday night from the airport in Ayolas, some 235 miles (380 kilometers) south of the capital, Asuncion.

The dead included Agriculture Minister Luis Gneiting, Vice Minister Vicente Ramirez and the pilot and co-pilot.

Aguilar says investigators will begin trying to determine the cause of the crash and the reason by an emergency beacon failed to activate — a factor that apparently slowed rescue efforts.