A small passenger plane has crashed in mountainous western Nepal, killing all 23 people on board.
The
Twin Otter aircraft, operated by Tara Air, was travelling from Pokhara
to Jomsom and lost contact with the control tower shortly after taking
off.Most of those on board were Nepalis. It is not clear what caused the crash.
The plane was carrying three crew and 20 passengers, one of them Chinese and one Kuwaiti. Nepal's aviation industry has a poor safety record.
According to Sanjiv Gautam, director general of Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority, the plane's wreckage was found near the village of Dana in Myagdi district.
Earlier he told the BBC Nepali Service that the aircraft had lost contact with the control tower at Pokhara 10 minutes after take-off.
The identities of those on board have yet to be released. Two of those on board were children.
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Three helicopters were sent to search for the missing plane, Tara Air said on its website, adding that "the weather at both origin and destination airports was favourable" for the 20-minute flight.
Nepal's army said, however, that fog had hampered the search for the aircraft.
"It looks like the plane crashed into the hillside. The wreckage was still in flames when the team arrived," chief district officer Sagar Mani Pathak told AFP news agency.
"We are sending teams to bring down the bodies, but they have not arrived yet. It is not possible for a helicopter to land in the area."
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