Passenger plane missing in Nepal

A plane with at least 21 people on board, has gone missing in a mountainous area of western Nepal, officials say.

The Twin Otter aircraft, operated by Tara Air was travelling from Pokhara to the trekking region of Jomsom, BBC reports.

It lost contact with the control tower shortly after taking off, an airport official said.

A helicopter search is being hampered by poor weather conditions, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Pokhara is a resort town some 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu. Jomsom, further north, is the starting point for many people trekking in the Himalayas. There are no landing strips between the two locations

Nepal's aviation industry has a poor safety record. In 2013, the European Union banned all Nepalese airlines from flying there.

Since 1949 - the year the first aircraft landed in Nepal - there have been more than 70 different crashes involving planes and helicopters, in which more than 700 people have been killed.