All 18 on board killed in Nepal Airlines crash

Twin Otter propeller plane burst into flames after crashing into mountainside in stormy weather on Sunday.

Bereaved friends and relatives comfort each other as the bodies of victims of an air crash in the country's mountainous western region arrive at the morgue of the Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu on February 17. Prakash Mathema /AFPShow less

KATHMANDU, Nepal // Rescuers in Nepal on Monday found the wreckage of a passenger plane that slammed into a snow-covered mountain and burst into flames, killing all 18 people on board, including a small child, authorities said.

Body parts and debris from the Nepal Airlines plane, which was carrying 15 passengers and three crew, were found scattered in a village next to the scene of Sunday’s crash in the mountainous west of the country, a police official at the scene said.

Officials dug through snow that had blanketed passengers’ bodies overnight in Arghakhanchi district, 226 kilometres west of the capital, local police official Kiran Khatri said.

“It was horrible, we found burnt body parts. Only eight people had undamaged faces,” Mr Khatri said in a phone interview.

The Twin Otter propeller plane, carrying locals and one passenger from Denmark, lost contact with air-traffic controllers shortly after taking off from the popular tourist town of Pokhara on Sunday afternoon.

The aircraft from the state-run carrier encountered heavy rain en route from Pokhara to the town of Jumla, 353 kilometres west of Kathmandu.

The torrential downpour eventually forced two helicopters to stop their hunt for the plane on Sunday.

Police resumed their search at first light on Monday, finally spotting scattered pieces of the wreckage during an aerial search of Arghakhanchi.

Soldiers have since recovered the bodies of all those on board, an army statement said.

“The bodies will be brought to Pokhara and Kathmandu for post mortem and handed over to respective families,” it said.

The crash, which left the aircraft shattered into small parts, is the latest to raise alarm over Nepal’s aviation industry. It comes only weeks after all the country’s airlines were banned from flying to the European Union.

An airline spokesman said engineers had refurbished the plane in recent weeks, leaving it in “good condition”.

“The preliminary report shows that the cause of the crash was the bad weather,” Ram Hari Sharma, Nepal Airlines spokesman, said.

“When the plane took off from Pokhara airport the weather condition was fine... but unfortunately the weather condition en route to the destination worsened,” Mr Sharma said.

“We cannot predict when the clouds cover the land,” he said.

Kathmandu-based aviation expert Hemant Arjyal said that while the weather may have played a part, the accident made it “pretty clear that our safety has not been up to the standards”.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse