Fourteen people died when their small plane crashed in bad weather in Nepal today, an airport official said.
The Angi Air plane, returning to Kathmandu after failing to land in Lukla in eastern Nepal because of bad weather, crashed near the outskirts of the capital, home ministry official Jai Mukunda Khanal said. Lukla is the gateway to Mount Everest.
A witness reported that the aircraft had broken into several pieces on impact.
The plane, a German-made Dornier, had five Nepali passengers and a crew of three. The victims also included four Americans,a Briton and a Japanese national.
"Rescuers are on the spot. We can confirm that all 14 on board the plane are dead," a Kathmandu airport official said, adding the cause of the crash was not known.
Attempts to reach the crash site were being hampered by the fact that the area has no roads and is accessible only by foot, with the route from the nearest town being blocked by a river flooded by monsoon rainfall.
"Rescuers are waiting at the crash site to bring the bodies back to Kathmandu. But the work is hampered due to heavy rains," the airport official added.
Eighteen people, 12 of them Germans, were killed when a small plane crashed two years ago in Lukla.
Agencies