KATHMANDU: A small aircraft taking tourists on a sightseeing tour of the Himalayas crashed in Nepal on Sunday, killing at least 18 people, airport officials and police said.

The Buddha Air plane carrying three Nepali crew, and 10 Indian passengers, one local and five other foreign tourists crashed into a hillside in heavy rain and fog at Godavari, 10 kilometres from Kathmandu, police spokesman Binod Singh told AFP.

“Eighteen people have died and one has been rescued alive. The Buddha Air-103 was returning from a mountain flight when it crashed with Kotdada Hill, six nautical miles south of Kathmandu,” said Bimesh Lal Karna, head of the rescue department at Tribhuwan International Airport.

Singh said airport authorities on the ground lost contact with the plane at 7:30am.

Local television stations reported that witnesses saw flames coming from the aircraft just before it crashed.