Nepal army finds wreckage of missing plane

"A search team has located the wreckage of the plane and shared a picture. Additional teams are heading there so we can get details," said Nepal Army spokesman Narayan Silwal.

An image shared by Silwal on Twitter showed debris from the wreckage of the flight strewn across a mountainside. Its registration number 9N-AET was clearly visible on what appeared to be a piece of a wing.

The search operation had only resumed earlier in the day after rescuers paused after dark on Sunday.

There were 19 passengers and three crew members on board the Twin Otter aircraft, operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air, airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told AFP. The passengers included two Germans and four Indians, with the remainder Nepali.

Before the wreckage was found, Pokhara Airport spokesman Dev Raj Subedi told AFP early Monday morning that rescue helicopters and army troops on the ground had shifted their search to a suspected crash site.

"The search operation has resumed... There has not been any significant improvement in the weather. Two helicopters have flown toward the area but they have not been able to land yet," he said.

Subedi said that they had followed GPS, mobile and satellite signals to the location.

The flight took off from the western town of Pokhara for Jomsom on Sunday at 9:55 am (0410 GMT), but air traffic control lost contact after 15 minutes, the airline said.

Jomsom is a popular trekking destination in the Himalayas about 20 minutes by plane from Pokhara, which lies 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu.