Nepal police find plane wreckage, no survivors

Nepalese police Monday found the wreckage of a missing Nepal Airlines plane carrying 18 people in the country's mountainous west but there were no survivors, an aviation official said.

"The plane crashed into a hill, police have found its wreckage in a village, but no survivors," Bimlesh Lal Karna, chief air traffic controller at the country's largest airport in Kathmandu, told AFP.

The plane carrying 15 passengers including an infant and three crew lost contact with air traffic controllers shortly after taking off from the popular tourist town of Pokhara Sunday afternoon, airline officials and police said.

The aircraft from the state-run carrier was travelling to the town of Jumla, 353 kilometres (220 miles) west of Kathmandu, when air traffic controllers lost contact.

Heavy rain hampered Sunday's efforts to locate the plane with two helicopters forced to turn back because of bad weather.

Police finally spotted scattered pieces of the wreckage while conducting an aerial search of Arghakhanchi district, 226 kilometres west of the capital, aviation official Karna said.

One of the passengers is from Denmark, according to airline spokesman Ram Hari Sharma.

The rest of those on board -- including Manab Sejuwal, a local politician from the ruling Nepali Congress party -- are from Nepal.

The crash again raises concerns about the Himalayan nation's aviation sector, which has come under fire from international authorities after a series of fatal accidents.

The European Union in December banned all the country's airlines from flying to the EU.

Nepal, which counts tourism as a major contributor to its economy, has suffered a number of air crashes in recent years, which have usually been attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and inadequate maintenance.

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Passenger plane carrying 18 missing in Nepal

A Nepal Airlines plane carrying 15 passengers and three crew went missing on Sunday afternoon shortly after take-off from a popular tourist resort, police and an airline spokesman said.

"The Nepal Airlines plane with 14 passengers took off from Pokhara airport at 1.30pm and disappeared 15 minutes later," Nepal police spokesman Ganesh KC told AFP.

A total of 18 people were on board, the 14 adult passengers, plus one infant and three crew, an airline spokesman said.

"One of the passengers is from Denmark," spokesman Ram Hari Sharma told AFP. The rest of those on board are from Nepal.

The airline has alerted police to "find the plane's location" and are "preparing for rescue operations," Sharma said.

The state-run carrier was travelling from Pokhara to the town of Jumla, 353 kilometres (220 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, when air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilot.

The incident highlights safety concerns about the Himalayan nation's aircraft.

Nepal, which counts tourism as a major contributor to its economy, has suffered a number of air crashes in recent years, which have usually been attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and maintenance.

A Chinese tourist and a local pilot were killed when an ultra-light aircraft crashed into a hill in the tourist town of Pokhara last October.

The European Union in December blacklisted all the country's airlines, citing their poor safety record, and banned them from flying to the EU.

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Nepal fears for tourism after EU airline ban

Nepal expressed fears on Friday for its tourism industry after the European Union blacklisted its airlines due to safety concerns.

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas announced on Thursday that the bloc had placed all of Nepal's airlines on its safety blacklist, banning them from flying to the EU, saying their safety record "does not leave us any other choice".

"This is very unfortunate. This will damage our tourism industry," said Mohan Krishna Sapkota, spokesman for the tourism and civil aviation ministry.

"In our meetings with the European Union officials, we had assured that we were working on maintaining safety standards. In the past several months, we have prepared safety manuals and monitored our airlines regularly," he said.

Sapkota said the government was yet to receive official notification from the EU and would comment further after a meeting of officials later in the day.

No airlines from Nepal fly to the EU but tourists, pilgrims and professional climbers -- most of them Europeans and Americans -- rely on the country's 16 accident-prone domestic airlines to reach remote areas.

The state-run Nepal Airlines, which flies to half a dozen foreign destinations including Hong Kong and Dubai, is the only local carrier operating international flights.

The Himalayan nation has suffered a number of air crashes in recent years, usually attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and maintenance.

A Chinese tourist and a local pilot were killed when an ultra-light aircraft crashed into a hill in the tourist town of Pokhara in early October.

In May, 21 people, including eight Japanese tourists, were hurt when a small plane skidded off an airport runway in northern Nepal.

In May last year, 15 people were killed at the same airport, while in September 2012, 19 people, including seven Britons and four Chinese, were killed after a plane crashed minutes after taking off from Kathmandu.

The Kathmandu Post newspaper on Friday reported that Nepalese aviation officials had met the EU representatives in Brussels last month in which they had asked for a six-month period to improve safety standards.

More than 800,000 foreign tourists visited the Himalayan nation last year.

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