At least 40 dead in Nepal plane crash, with authorities saying an ...

At least 44 people have died after a Yeti Airlines aircraft crashed in Pokhara in central Nepal, a Nepalese aviation official says, in the small Himalayan country's worst crash in nearly five years.

Hundreds of rescue workers were scouring the hillside where the Yeti Airlines flight, carrying 72 people from the capital Kathmandu, went down.

The plane had five Indians, four Russians, one Irish, two South Korean, one Australian, one French and one Argentinian national onboard.

"Thirty bodies have been recovered and sent to hospital," said Jagannath Niroula, spokesman for Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority. "Another 14 bodies are still lying at the crash site and authorities are bringing in a crane to move them."

"We expect to recover more bodies," army spokesperson Krishna Bhandari told Reuters.

Local television showed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage. 

"The plane is burning," police official Ajay KC said, adding that rescue workers were having difficulty reaching the crash site in a gorge between two hills near the tourist town's airport.

The [aircraft] made contact with the airport from Seti Gorge at 10:50 am (local time), the aviation authority said in a statement. "Then it crashed."

"Half of the plane is on the hillside," said Arun Tamu, a local resident, who told Reuters he reached the site minutes after the plane went down."

"The other half has fallen into the gorge of the Seti river."

The crash is Nepal's deadliest since March 2018, when a US-Bangla flight from Dhaka crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 51 of the 71 people onboard, according to Aviation Safety Network.

Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called an emergency cabinet meeting, a government statement said.

The plane was 15 years old, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

The ATR72 is a widely used plane manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, according to its website.

At least 309 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Everest, where the weather can change suddenly and make for hazardous conditions.

The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from its airspace since 2013, citing safety concerns.

ABC/wires