The crash just before landing.
An ATR 72 plane, operated by Nepalese Yeti Airlines, crashed just one and a half kilometers from the international airport of Pokhara, a famous tourist destination 200 kilometers from the capital Kathmandu, from where it had departed.
On board were 68 passengers and four crew members, 37 men, 25 women, three children and three infants, the local civil aviation authority said, specifying that rescuers recovered the body of a small a few months.
At the moment there are 68 confirmed victims.
The plane crash is the worst in the last thirty years in the small South Asian country.
15 foreigners also boarded the flight, the airline said, five from India, four Russians, two South Koreans, one Australian,
an Argentinian, an Irishman and a Frenchman.
It does not appear that there were Italians on board.
The officials of the new Himalayan airport, inaugurated just two weeks ago, said that the twin-propeller (which according to tracker data had been flying for 15 years) fell during the approach: it took off at 10.30 (local time) and had last contact with control tower at 10.50.
Seconds later, the violent impact on the banks of the Seti Gandaki River.
The search, in which hundreds of Nepalese soldiers took part throughout the day, was suspended as evening fell, the army spokesman said, and will resume tomorrow morning: "We expect to recover more bodies. The plane it fell apart,” he explained.
Several videos and images of the plane dangerously low over the houses of the
area of Pokhara, posted on social media by residents and relaunched by international sites, show the abrupt and sudden turn of the ATR 72. "The pilot did his best not to hit the houses. There was only a small space where there they are houses, right next to the Seti river and the plane ended up there", said a witness who saw the aircraft as it fell.
"When I arrived at the crash site it was already full of people. The plane was on fire, there was a lot of smoke. And then the helicopters arrived, in no time," she added.
The military spokesman noted that the plane fell into a 300-metre gorge "so it is difficult to recover the victims left in the wreckage".
News of survivors chased throughout the day.
The BBC reported "seriously injured people taken to hospital", but clarified that there was no official confirmation.
Authorities said late in the afternoon that no survivors had been found so far.
After the crash, Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal called an emergency meeting and formed a commission of inquiry to investigate the cause of the crash.
The Nepalese airline industry has particularly increased its activities in recent years, with cargo and passengers transported between hard-to-reach areas, as well as foreign trekkers and climbers reaching the country with eight of the world's ten highest peaks.
Nepal also has some of the most remote and difficult airstrips on the planet,
flanked by snow-capped peaks with descents that are a challenge for more experienced riders.
Airline operators say there is no infrastructure for accurate weather forecasting in the country, especially in areas with challenging mountainous terrain where fatal accidents have occurred in the past.
Today the weather was fine in Pokhara, the sky clear, but it didn't help to avoid the disaster.