Nepal finds wreckage of missing plane

Rescue teams in Nepal on Wednesday found the burnt-out wreckage of a passenger plane that went missing in a remote mountainous area with 23 people on board, the aviation minister said.

Aananda Prasad Pokharel said the Twin Otter turboprop aircraft had been found in the western district of Myagdi and bodies could be seen scattered around it.

"The wreckage of the plane was found in a completely burnt state in Solighopte in Myagdi district," said Pokharel, minister for culture, tourism and civil aviation.

"The team there say that the bodies are scattered and it is not possible to identify anyone right now.

"More security agencies are being deployed and we are trying to get more information."

The army had deployed helicopters and foot soldiers to search Myagdi, a mountainous district around 220 kilometres (160 miles) west of Kathmandu, after locals reported seeing possible wreckage of the Tara Air plane.

The airline said the plane was carrying three crew and 20 passengers, one a Chinese and one a Kuwaiti national, revising an earlier figure of 18 passengers. 

All the others were from Nepal and two of them were children.

Tara Air said the Twin Otter had lost contact with air traffic control eight minutes after taking off from the tourist town of Pokhara early on Wednesday.

A statement on its website said weather conditions were good when the plane took off for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination in the Himalayas about 20 minutes' flight from Pokhara.

"The weather at both origin and destination airports was favourable and the airport cleared for departure by the control tower at Pokhara," it said.

Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately-owned domestic carrier founded in 1998 which services many remote destinations across Nepal.

It suffered its last fatal accident in 2010 when a plane chartered by a group of Bhutanese tourists crashed into a mountainside in eastern Nepal.