Domestic flight with 22 people on board missing in Nepal

KATHMANDU -- A passenger plane with 22 aboard that was flying from Nepal's Pokhara to Jomsom in Mustang district went missing on Sunday morning, a local government official said.

"The passenger plane belonging to Tara Air has been missing," Shiva Prasad Rijal, assistant chief district officer of Kaski in Pokhara, the capital of Gandaki Province, told Xinhua.

"It was carrying 19 passengers and three crew members," he added.

The plane took off from Pokhara airport at 9:55 am local time and was supposed to land at Jomsom airport at 10:20 am, but it lost contact with the control tower a few minutes after taking off, Rijal said.

While most of the passengers are Nepali, there are a few foreign nationals, though their identities have not been made public yet, the official said, noting security agencies have been placed on alert and civil aviation officials were holding an emergency meeting over a search and rescue operation.