Plane with 22 people on board, including tourists, missing in Nepal mountains

 A small plane carrying 22 people on board lost a popular tourist road in nepal's mountains on Sunday, an official said.

The Tara airline plane was on a scheduled 15-minute flight to the mountain town of Gomsom from the tourist town of Pokhara, 200 kilometres from Kathmandu, and lost contact with the airport control tower shortly after take-off.

A police official said that there was no information about the Twin Otter aircraft and that a search was under way.

Another police official said that six foreigners, including four Indians and two German nationals, were on board.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said two helicopters had been sent to conduct the searches, adding that visibility was poor. "Bad weather may slow down searches. The vision is so weak that we can't see anything."

It has been raining in the area for the past few days, but flights are operating normally.

The planes fly along this road between the mountains before landing in a ravine.

The route is popular for foreign hikers walking through mountain passes as well as for Indian and Nepalese visitors visiting the Temple of Muktinath.

According to aircraft tracking data from Flight Radar 24.com, the 43-year-old plane took off from Pokhara at 04:10 GMT and sent its last signal at 04:22 GMT at an altitude of 12,825 feet.

In 2016, a Twin Otter Tara plane crashed while flying along the same road after takeoff, killing all 23 passengers. In 2012, a SongAir plane from Pokhara to Gumsom crashed, killing 15 people, and six people survived.

In 2014, a Nepal Airways plane from Pokhara to Gomla crashed, killing all 18 on board.

In 2018, a Passenger Plane of the American Airlines of Bengali crashed while arriving from Bangladesh when it landed in Kathmandu, killing 49 of the 71 people on board.