Nepal air crash kills 25

A Twin Otter passenger aircraft has crashed in western Nepal, killing all 25 people on board.

The bodies of 19 adult passenger, three children and and three crew members, have all been recovered officials said. All those killed were Nepali.

The aircraft, which belonged to Royal Nepal Airlines, was on a domestic flight.

It crashed near Jogbudha village in Dadeldhura district, 415km west of Nepal's capital Kathmandu.

A spokesman for Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport told the French news agency AFP that the last contact was made with the aircraft at 1031 local time (0446 GMT).

"Radio contact with the plane was lost just two minutes before it was scheduled to land," Civil Aviation Minister Tarini Dutta Chataut told AP.

Crash scene

The pilot of a helicopter that flew out to the crash site said the area was strewn with aircraft debris, passengers' belongings and bodies of the victims.

"I could see some bodies hanging from trees and others scattered over the hilly crash site," Kiran Malla, told Reuters.

The Nepalese Government has ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash.

The Twin Otter is a Canadian-built plane which can seat 18 people.

On this particular flight, there were 19 passengers, three small children and a crew of three.

Poor communications facilities and bad weather have hampered flights in the Himalayan kingdom in the past.

Last year, a passenger plane crashed near Kathmandu airport killing all 15 people on board.

In a Lufthansa cargo plane crash in the same year, also near Kathmandu, five crew members died.