Rescuers searching a mountainside in Nepal on Monday recovered the bodies of 17 of the 22 people who were on board a plane that crashed a day earlier, officials said.
A search is continuing for the remaining people, airline spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said.
Bartaula said rescuers believe some bodies are pinned under the plane’s wreckage. Rescuers working with their bare hands have not been able to move the metal debris, he said.
The Tara Air turboprop Twin Otter lost contact with the airport tower on Sunday while flying on a scheduled 20-minute flight in an area of deep river gorges and mountaintops.
Four Indians and two Germans were on the plane, Tara Air said. The three crew members and other passengers were Nepali nationals, it said.
The wreckage was located by villagers who had been searching in the area for the Yarsagumba fungus, which is commonly referred to as Himalayan Viagra, according to local news reports.
The Setopati new website quoted a villager, Bishal Magar, as saying that they heard about the missing plane on Sunday but were only able to reach the site on Monday morning after following the smell of fuel.
Magar said it appeared the plane may have clipped the top of a smaller mountain and then slammed into a bigger mountain.
Local news reports said the passengers included two Nepali families, one with four members and the other with seven.
Aerial photos of the crash site showed aircraft parts scattered on rocks and moss on the side of a mountain gorge.
The army said the plane crashed in Sanosware in Mustang district close to the mountain town of Jomsom, where it was heading after taking off from the resort town of Pokhara, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Kathmandu.
According to tracking data from flightradar24.com, the 43-year-old aircraft took off from Pokhara at 9:55 a.m. and transmitted its last signal at 10:07 a.m. at an altitude of 12,825 feet (3,900 meters).
Read: Rescuers close to plane that crashed in Nepal with 22 aboard
