Plane Reportedly goes missing in Nepal with 21 on board

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Rescue teams were on Wednesday scouring a remote mountainous area of Nepal where a passenger plane went missing with 21 people on board, two of them children.

Tara Air said the Twin Otter aircraft had lost contact with air traffic control eight minutes after taking off from the popular tourist town of Pokhara in western Nepal early on Wednesday.

The airline said the plane was carrying three crew and 18 passengers, one a Chinese and one a Kuwaiti national. All the others were from Nepal and two were children.

"We have dispatched three helicopters on a search and rescue mission. We will provide updates as they come," said a statement posted on its website.

It said weather conditions were good when the plane took off for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination in the Himalayas about 20 minutes flight from Pokhara, which lies 225km west of Kathmandu.

"The weather at both origin and destination airports was favourable and the airport cleared for departure by the control tower at Pokhara," said the statement.

A Nepal Army spokesperson, however, said fog was hampering the search for the Twin Otter plane.

"Our rescue teams have been deployed, but the weather was not clear in the morning," said army spokesperson Tara Bahadur Karki.

"They are still out looking at possible areas, but the plane has not been located yet."