Small passenger plane carrying 14 including foreigners crashes south of Nepal’s capital

Small passenger plane crashes near Nepal’s capital

KATMANDU, Nepal — A small passenger plane heading to the Mount Everest region crashed in heavy rain Tuesday outside Nepal’s capital, killing all 14 people aboard, including four U.S. nationals, a Briton and a Japanese tourist, officials said.

The private Agni Air plane went down near Shikharpur village, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Katmandu, area police chief Ram Bahadur Shrestha said. The German-built Dornier airplane was carrying 11 passengers and three crew members when bad weather forced it to try to return to Katmandu.

Tri Ratna Manandhar of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal confirmed there were no survivors. Manandhar said there were four Americans, one Briton and one Japanese aboard, while the remaining passengers and crew were Nepalese.

Officials had earlier said there were five Americans on the plane.

Shrestha said rescuers were not immediately able to reach the crash site. The area has no roads and is only accessible by foot, but the route from the nearest town was blocked by a river flooded by monsoon rainfall.

Ram Bahadur Gole, a villager who witnessed the accident, told Avenues Television network that the crash impact broke the plane into several pieces that were scattered on a hillside.