Updated on
Summary
All 15 people aboard a small plane heading for the Everest region, including four Americans, a Japanese and a Briton, were killed when the plane crashed in bad weather near the Nepalese capital on Tuesday. The Agni Air plane was returning to Kathmandu after it was unable to land at Lukla, its intended destination in a popular trekking spot in the Everest region of eastern Nepal, home ministry spokesman Jayamukunda Khanal told. Thousands of travellers fly into Lukla, 140 kilometres (90 miles) northeast of Kathmandu, every year to access the stunning Himalayan range that forms Nepal's northern border with Chinese-controlled Tibet. Local villagers said they saw the plane crash into a field next to a school about 15 miles south of Kathmandu and break up on impact. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. The last major accident there was in 2008 when a Twin Otter plane carrying 18 people crashed killing everyone on board.
