The Tara Air flight was flying over mountains from Pokhara to Jomsom in poor visibility when it went missing today.

Of the 18 passengers now missing, two were foreigners coming from Kuwait and China, while there are also fears over the safety of the three crew members.

A statement on the airline’s website said: “We have dispatched three helicopters on a search and rescue mission. We will provide updates as they come.

“The weather at both origin and destination airports was favourable and the airport cleared for departure by the control tower at Pokhara.”

Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier founded in 1998, which runs a service to many remote destinations across Nepal.

It suffered its last fatal accident in 2010 when a plane chartered by a group of Bhutanese tourists crashed into a mountainside in eastern Nepal.