Former Canadian minister Jean Lapierre dies in Quebec plane crash alongside wife and three siblings

The family had been on their way to their father's funeral when the plane crashed in Quebec

Jean Lapierre and his wife Nicole Beaulieu in 2004 (AP)

Four siblings, including a former Canadian cabinet minister, have died in a plane crash as they travelled to their father’s funeral.

Jean Lapierre, 59, was with his wife, two brothers and sister when the aircraft crashed off an island in eastern Quebec on Tuesday.

All seven people on board, including two crew members, died in the disaster near Iles-de-la-Madeleine (Magdalen Islands) Airport.

Jean Lapierre and his wife Nicole Beaulieu in 2004 (AP)

Mr Lapierre, the former transport minister and a prominent television broadcaster, had been on his way to attend the funeral of his father, who died aged 83 on Friday.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, said he was “shaken by the sudden death” of Mr Lapierre and called it a great loss to the political world.

Paul Martin, who chose the Liberal politician as his transport minister, described him as a wonderful man who understood the issues and loved people.

The family were travelling in a private Mitsubishi turboprop plane that took off from the St-Hubert regional airport south of Montreal on Tuesday morning.

“The crash took place in a field on approach to (Iles-de-la-Madeleine) airport,” said Quebec provincial police Sergeant Daniel Thibodeau, who described the weather as “not ideal” for flying.

The wreckage of an airplane lies in a field Tuesday, March 29, 2016, in Havre-aux-Maison, Quebec. (AP)

The cause of the crash at 11.40am local time (4.40pm BST) was not immediately known but CBC said the plane went down in fog and freezing rain, while Environment Canada had issued an alert for strong winds in the region.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is deploying a team of investigators.

The Quebec coroner's office named the victims as Mr Lapierre, his wife Nicole Beaulieu, Martine Lapierre, Marc Lapierre, Louis Lapierre and crew members Pascal Gosselin and Fabrice Labourel.

After retiring from politics in 2007, Mr Lapierre had become a sought-after political analyst in English and French and regularly contributed to radio and television shows, as well as co-authoring a book published in 2014.

He was first elected to Canada's parliament as a federalist Liberal in 1979, representing a Quebec district, and briefly served as youth and amateur sports minister in a short-lived government in 1984.

Aged 28 at the time, he was the youngest cabinet minister ever appointed.

He co-chaired Mr Martin's campaign for the Liberal leadership in 1990 and then became a founding member of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, although he later said he was never really a supporter of an independent Quebec.

Mr Lapierre is survived by his two children, Marie-Anne and Jean-Michel.