The plane was on a short scheduled flight to the mountain town of Jomsom.

Rescuers unsuccessfully scoured a remote mountainous area in western Nepal by helicopter and on foot all day Sunday, as weather hampered search flights.

Nepal Army official Baburam Shrestha said ground troops would stay at a local school for the night and be joined by additional forces in the morning.

“We will also resume the search operation from our helicopter tomorrow morning once the weather is clear,” he said.

Dev Raj Subedi, a spokesman for Pokhara Airport, said three helicopters had had to turn back.

“Right now we cannot say where exactly where the aircraft is and in what condition,” he said. “There has not been any reporting or information from locals about a big fire or any other such indications.”

Earlier, police official Ramesh Thapa said there were 19 passengers and three crew members on board the Twin Otter aircraft.

A police official who was not authorised to speak to the media said there were six foreigners on board the plane – four Indians and two Germans – with the remainder being Nepali.

Relatives of those on board gathered outside Pokhara airport, consoling each other as they wept and waited for news.

It had been raining in the area for the past few days but flights were operating normally. Planes on that route fly between mountains before landing in a valley.

Phanindra Mani Pokharel, a spokesman at the Ministry of Home Affairs, said two helicopters were deployed for a search operation, but he said visibility was low.

“The bad weather is likely to hamper the search operation. The visibility is so poor that nothing can be seen,” Pokharel said.

The Twin Otter aircraft’s last known location was in an area around Ghorepani, a village 2,874 metres (9,429 feet) above sea level, according to the aviation authority.

Jomsom is a trekking destination in the Himalayas about 20 minutes by plane from Pokhara, which lies west of Kathmandu.

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It is a popular route with foreign hikers who walk the mountain trails and also with Indian and Nepalese pilgrims who visit the revered Muktinath temple.

The European Union has banned all Nepali airlines from its airspace over safety concerns.

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The country also has some of the world’s most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge for even accomplished pilots.

Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier which services many remote destinations across Nepal.

It suffered its last fatal accident in 2016 on the same route when a plane with 23 on board crashed into a mountainside in Myagdi district.

In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines plane crashed near Kathmandu’s international airport, killing 51 people. The following year three people died when a plane veered off the runway and hit two helicopters while taking off near Mount Everest.

The accident happened at Lukla airport which is the main gateway to the Everest region and is reputed to be one of the most difficult in the world for landings and take-offs.

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Also in 2019, Nepal’s tourism minister Rabindra Adhikari was among seven people killed when a helicopter crashed in the country’s hilly east.

This month Nepal’s second international airport opened at Bhairahawa, aiming to give Buddhist pilgrims from across Asia access to the Buddha’s birthplace at nearby Lumbini.

The US$76 million project will ease pressure on the overburdened Kathmandu international airport.

Additional reporting Associated Press