Kathmandu: At least 40 of the 72 people onboard Yeti Airlines operated ATR 72 aircraft have been killed after the aircraft crashed in Nepal’s Pokhara this morning, Reuters reported.

"10 foreign nationals, including 2 infants were on board," Sudarshan Bartaula, spokesperson of Yeti Airlines, said. 53 Nepali, 5 Indian, 4 Russian, One Irish, 2 Koreans, 1 Argentinian, and a French national were on board, news agency ANI reported, quoting the airport authority.

Rescue operations have been difficult as a massive fire engulfed the plane, Nepali journalist Dilip Thapa told NDTV.

"We don't know right now if there are survivors," the airline's spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula told news agency AFP.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the aircraft departed from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am.

Media reports said that rescue team has been deployed at the site of the crash.

Nepal’s airline business has been wrecked by multiple air crashes which have been attributed to inadequate training and air safety concerns.

Since 2013, the European Union has put Nepal on its flight safety blacklist putting a blanket ban on all Nepalese flights into its airspace, said the AFP report.

Hundreds of people have earlier died in horrific plane crashes in Nepal, it added.

In May 2022, all passengers—Nepali carrier Tara Air—16 Nepalis, four Indians, and two Germans—were killed in a crash.

Nepal saw its deadliest air crash in 1992 when 167 people travelling in Pakistan International Airlines plane lost their lives when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.

In 1992, 51 people were killed as a US-Bangla Airlines plane crash-landed near Kathmandu's international airport.

India’s Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia expressed sorrow over the loss of lives in the plane crash.

"The loss of lives in a tragic plane crash in Nepal is extremely unfortunate. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the bereaved. Om Shanti," he tweeted.