Nepal plane crash: Rescuers find 21 bodies from wreck

The wreckage of a Twin Otter aircraft, operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air, was strewn on a mountainside in Mustang a day after it crashed

Rescuers have found 21 bodies so far from the crash site of a plane that went down in northern Nepal.

The small plane had been carrying 22 people, and searches continue to find the remaining missing passenger.

The plane was on a 20-minute flight when it lost contact with air traffic control five minutes before it was due to land.

The wreckage of the plane, operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air, was recovered in Mustang district.

"We have found 20 dead bodies, the body of an additional person has been located and rescuers are trying to retrieve it from difficult mountain terrain," the country's Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Deo Chandra Lal Karn told the BBC on Monday.

"Rescuers are still searching for a missing individual at the crash site," he said.

Four Indians, two Germans and 16 Nepalis were on board the plane, according to reports. But search operations have been hampered by bad weather and mountainous terrain.

Images posted on Twitter by a spokesman from the Nepalese Army showed the remains of the plane - prominently bearing its registered call sign 9N-AET.

"Search and rescue troops have physically located the plane crash site," Narayan Silwal said on Twitter earlier on Monday, marking the end of a nearly 24-hour long search for the wreckage.

The plane, which was made by Canadian aircraft firm de Havilland, had departed the tourist town of Pokhara at around 0955 local time on Sunday (04:10 GMT). It was bound for Jomsom - a popular tourist and pilgrimage site.

The Nepalese government has said it has formed a panel to investigate the fatal crash.

Nepal has had a fraught record of aviation accidents, often due to its sudden weather changes and airstrips located in rocky terrains that are difficult to access.

In early 2018, a US-Bangla flight carrying 71 people from Dhaka in Bangladesh caught fire as it landed in Kathmandu, killing 51 people.

More recently, three people died in a plane crash in April 2019 when the aircraft veered off the runway and hit a stationary helicopter at Lukla Airport - considered one of the most tricky runways to navigate.