A plane operated by a private airline in Nepal has disappeared with 22 people on board. Cloudy weather prevents search helicopters from flying into the area of the last known location of the flight, officials said.
The Tara Air plane took off from the tourist city of Pokhara, 80 miles (125 km) west of the capital, Kathmandu, in the direction of Jomsom, about 48 miles northwest, the officials. Tara Air mainly flies Canadian-built Twin Otter turboprop aircraft.
“A search helicopter returned to Jomsom due to bad weather without locating the plane,” the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
“Helicopters are ready to take off from Kathmandu, Pokhara and Jomsom once the weather conditions improve. Army and police search teams have marched to the scene.”
The airline said the plane was carrying four Indians, two Germans and 16 Nepalese, including three crew members.
The plane lost contact with the control tower five minutes before landing in Jomsom, a tourist and pilgrimage site, an airline official said on condition of anonymity.
The country’s meteorological office said there had been heavy clouds in the Pokhara-Jomson area since morning.
Police Officer Prem Kumar Dani said a rescue and ground search team had been sent to the area near Mount Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest peak in the world at 8,167 meters (26,795 feet).
Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, has a record number of air crashes. Its climate can change suddenly and the runways are usually in hard-to-reach mountainous areas.
In early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu crash-landed and caught fire, killing 51 of the 71 people on board.
In 1992, all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed into a hill while trying to land in Kathmandu.