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Plane missing in western Nepal with 18 on board Missing Nepal plane: aerial search halts overnight
(about 3 hours later)
A plane with 18 people on board has gone missing in western Nepal. The aerial search for the plane that went missing in Nepal with 18 people on board has been suspended overnight.
Contact with the Nepal Airlines plane was lost a few minutes after it took off from the town of Pokhara, bound for Jumla, around 360km (220 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, officials said. Two helicopters despatched for search and rescue halted their operation as night wore on, amid poor weather conditions.
Fifteen passengers - reportedly including a child- and three crew members were on board the aircraft. Soldiers are continuing with a ground search in the area where the plane is thought to have been when it was last in contact.
Critics say that many passenger aircraft in Nepal are often poorly maintained. Officials say aerial surveillance will resume on Monday.
The Twin Otter plane went missing shortly after it took off at 12:40 local time (06:55 GMT), Nepal Airlines spokesman Ram Hari Sharma told the BBC. Contact with the Nepal Airlines plane was lost a few minutes after it took off from the resort town of Pokhara, bound for Jumla, around 360km (220 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, officials said.
One of the passengers is believed to be a foreign national. Fifteen passengers - reportedly including a child - and three crew members were on board the aircraft.
Bimlesh Lal Karna, an official with the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal who was coordinating rescue efforts, said two rescue helicopters have been sent to the area, but they have not been not been able to trace the plane. The passenger manifest states that one of the passengers was Danish.
He said that search efforts were being hampered by bad weather. Critics say that many passenger aircraft in Nepal are poorly maintained.
The Canada-made Twin Otter plane went missing shortly after take-off at 12:40 local time (06:55 GMT), spokesman for the state-run airline, Ram Hari Sharma, told the BBC.
The flight had started in Kathmandu and stopped at Pokhara for refuelling.
Poor recordPoor record
In December the EU put all of Nepal's airlines on a blacklist, citing safety fears. In December the EU put all of Nepal's airlines on a blacklist and banned them from flying to the EU, on safety grounds.
In Nepal, 13 private airlines fly to nearly 50 airports, many of them in difficult locations, surrounded by mountains, cloudy weather and with no road access.
In September 2012, a plane operated by Nepal's Sita Air crashed near Kathmandu airport, killing 19 people.In September 2012, a plane operated by Nepal's Sita Air crashed near Kathmandu airport, killing 19 people.
In May of that year 15 people died when an Agni Air plane carrying Indian pilgrims to a Hindu religious site in northern Nepal crashed at a high-altitude airport.In May of that year 15 people died when an Agni Air plane carrying Indian pilgrims to a Hindu religious site in northern Nepal crashed at a high-altitude airport.
Since 1949 - the year the first aircraft landed in Nepal - there have been more than 70 different crashes involving planes and helicopters, in which more than 700 people have been killed.Since 1949 - the year the first aircraft landed in Nepal - there have been more than 70 different crashes involving planes and helicopters, in which more than 700 people have been killed.