Tourists among plane crash dead

A Briton, an American and 13 German tourists were among 18 people killed today when a small plane crashed in Nepal, authorities said.

The aircraft, which was also carrying three crew, was flying to the western resort town of Pokhara.

So far 13 bodies have been recovered, Pokhara police chief Kumar Koirala said.

The Canadian-built Twin Otter was owned by the private carrier, Shines. An airline official said bad weather was hampering recovery efforts.

He said the plane was approaching Pokhara, 125 miles west of the capital Kathmandu, when air traffic controllers lost contact with it.

The flight was coming from Jomson, a popular trekking route and Hindu religious site.

There are more than a dozen private airlines in mountainous Nepal which has a poor road network.

The airlines launched operations after the country opened up aviation to the private sector about a decade ago.

The Himalayan kingdom has been hard hit this year by annual monsoon rains, with flooding and landslides killing nearly 500 people in remote mountainous areas.

Army rescue helicopters have been grounded in Kathmandu because of poor visibility, unable to deliver badly needed blankets, food and medicine to villages where roads have been washed away.