Plane goes missing with 22 people on board in Nepal

A small passenger plane operated by a private airline went missing in Nepal on Sunday with 22 people on board during cloudy weather, and officials said search teams had been sent to the site of a fire spotted by local residents.

State-owned Nepal Television said villagers had seen an aircraft on fire at the source of the Lyanku Khola River at the foot of the Himalayan mountain Manapathi, in a district bordering Tibet.

The plane, a De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter, took off in the morning for a 20-minute flight but lost contact with the control tower five minutes before it was due to land, government officials said. It was operated by Tara Air.

"Ground search teams are proceeding toward that direction," Tara Air spokesperson Sudarshan Gartaula told Reuters, referring to the fire site. "It could be a fire by villagers or by cowherds. It could be anything."

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) also said a team was headed to that area.

"The location of the aircraft remains unknown so far because of bad weather and complex terrain," it said in a statement. "The ground and air search for the aircraft will be intensified and the rescue coordination centre will remain open for 24 hours."

The airline said the plane was carrying four Indians, two Germans and 16 Nepalis, including three crew.

The plane flew from the tourist town of Pokhara, some 125 km west of the capital, Kathmandu. It was headed for Jomsom, which is about 80 km northwest of Pokhara and is a popular tourist and pilgrimage site.

Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said the missing aircraft, with registration number 9N-AET, made its first flight in April 1979.

The weather office said there had been thick cloud cover in the Pokhara-Jomson area since the morning.