All the 21 people including four crew members on board were killed in a plane crashed early Friday morning near the Jinnah International Airport of Karachi in southern Pakistan, said a rescue team leader on the plane crash site.

According to the rescue team leader, the 21 killed in the plane crash included 17 passengers, one pilot, one co-pilot, a technician and an air guard.

So far, a total of 15 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of the crashed plane, said an army officer who is leading the rescue work on the site, adding that the bodies recovered are completely burned beyond recognition and it is not known whether there were any foreigners on board or not.

One local media report said that at least one foreigner was on board and details about the identity of the passengers aboard the crashed plane are not announced yet.

Early Friday morning, a Cessna plane capable of carrying a maximum of 23 people on board at one time crashed right after it took off from the Jinnah International Airport of Karachi at about 7:13 am (local time).

The crashed plane belongs to a local air company named JS Air and is currently chartered by a British oil and gas company named ENI in Pakistan. The crashed plane is said to be on its way to an oil field at the Bhit Shah village in the southern part of Sindh province.

Engine failure is the main culprit for the plane crash, said Pervaiz George, spokesman of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Pakistan.

According to the spokesman, the pilot of the crashed plane informed the control tower that the plane had a problem with its right engine and as the plane took a U-turn upon the return request of the control tower and fell down near the airport.

Friday's plane crash has been the second most serious accident of its kind in Pakistan since this year. On July 28, an Airbus 321 carrying 152 people crashed near the country's capital of Islamabad, killing all the people on board. The cause of the disaster is still under investigation. Bad weather is believed to be a possible reason for the crash as it rained heavily when the plane crashed into the densely-wooded Margalla Hills sprawling along the northwestern side of Islamabad.