KATHMANDU, Aug 22: Eighteen people, including 15 foreign tourists, were killed Thursday when a light plane crashed in bad weather in western Nepal close to the popular trekking destination of Pokhara.

The dead included 13 Germans, a Briton, a United States national and three Nepalese crew members, officials said.

The Canadian-built Twin Otter, belonging to private airliner Shangrila Air, went missing a few minutes before it was due to land at Pokhara airport, 225 kilometres west of Kathmandu, a civil aviation official said.

“The aircraft has crashed at a place called Krishti Nachene Chaur’s Shanti Stupa” — about five kilometres from Pokhara, the official said.

The last contact between the plane and air traffic control was at 10:00 am (0415 GMT). Around that time local residents heard a huge bang, a local rescue official told state radio.

Rescuers took the badly-mutilated bodies from the crash site to Pokhara airport and from there they were flown to Kathmandu Thursday evening, the radio said.

The plane was flying from the small tourist town of Jomson to Pokhara, a destination popular with tourists for its large lake and as a starting point for treks in the Annapurna mountains.

The German tourists had arrived in Nepal on August 12 and were due to return home on Friday, said a spokesman for their tour company, Shankar Travels.

“They were on a trekking holiday and were on their way back to Pokhara and were then due to fly to Kathmandu and home,” he said. The government immediately ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash, the radio said.

Bad weather was thought to be responsible for the accident .

Heavy monsoon rains during the past month have caused floods across the country, while a landslide on Wednesday triggered by rains is believed to have killed up to 100 people.—AFP