UPDATED 10.57pm

An Australian was among the 72 people on board a domestic flight that crashed in Nepal, an airport official says.

At least 68 people were killed when the Yeti Airlines flight from capital Kathmandu went down in Pokhara on Sunday.

The weather was clear, said Jagannath Niroula, spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority.

“Thirty bodies have been recovered and sent to hospital,” Mr Niroula said.

“Another 14 bodies are still lying at the crash site and authorities are bringing in a crane to move them.”

As well as an Australian, the plane had five Indians, four Russians, one Irish national, two South Koreans, one French national and an Argentinian on board, a Nepal airport official said.

Two infants and four crew members were among the 72 on board the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, Yeti Airlines spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula said.

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Local TV showed rescue workers scrambling around broken sections of the aircraft. Some of the ground near the crash site was scorched, with licks of flames visible.

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

The craft made contact with the airport from Seti Gorge at 10.50am local time on Sunday, 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 said he reached the site minutes after the plane went down.

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

Khum Bahadur Chhetri said he watched from the roof of his house as the flight approached.

“I saw the plane trembling, moving left and right, and then suddenly its nose dived and it went into the gorge,” Mr Chhetri said, adding that local residents took two passengers to a hospital.

The government has set up a panel to investigate the cause of the crash and it is expected to report within 45 days, the finance minister, Bishnu Paudel, told reporters.

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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 sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions.

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

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

The crash is Nepal’s deadliest since March 2018, when a US-Bangla Dash 8 turboprop flight from Dhaka crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 51 of the 71 people on board, according to Aviation Safety Network.

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

The ATR72 is a widely used twin-engine turboprop 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.

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called an emergency cabinet meeting after the plane crash, a government statement said.

-Reuters