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A 43-year-old plane operated by a private airline in Nepal that went missing on Sunday with 22 people on board was found at Kowang in Mustang.

“According to the information given by the locals to the Nepal Army, the Tara Air plane crashed at the mouth of the Lamche river under the landslide of Manapathi Himal. Nepal Army is moving towards the site from the ground and air route,” Nepal Army spokesperson Narayan Silwal was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Nepal's Tara Air took off at 9:55 am from Pokhara, and lost contact at 10:07 am, according to an airline spokesperson.

A Nepal Army helicopter carrying 10 soldiers and two employees of the civil aviation authority landed on the bank of a river near the Narshang Monastery, the possible site of the crash, according to My Republica newspaper.

"A Nepal Army helicopter has landed on the river bank near Narshang Gumba," Prem Nath Thakur, general manager of the Tribhuvan International Airport, was



quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Interestingly, the plane was located after Nepal Telecom tracked down the cellphone of the airplane’s Captain Prabhakar Ghimire, through the Global Positioning System (GPS) network.

"The cell phone of Captain Ghimire of the missing aircraft has been ringing, and the Nepal Army’s helicopter has landed in the possible accident area after tracking the captain’s phone from Nepal Telecom," Thakur said.

"We have also sent Nepal Army and Nepal Police personnel on foot for the search," he added.

The airline issued a list of passengers, four of whom were identified as Indians, besides two Germans, 13 Nepali passengers, and a three-member Nepali crew.

"Tara Air flight 9NAET that took off from Pokhara at 9.55 AM today with 22 people onboard, including 4 Indians, has gone missing. Search and rescue operation is on. The embassy is in touch with their family. Our emergency hotline number:+977-9851107021," the Indian embassy in Nepal tweeted.