A turboprop aircraft operated by privately owned Yeti Airlines has reportedly crashed while on a domestic flight in the mountainous Himalayan nation of Nepal, killing 18 of the 19 people on board.

Reports from Nepal say the aircraft, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, crashed while on approach to the eastern city of Lukla's airport at around 08:00. It was on a domestic flight from Kathmandu.

The reports quote government officials as saying one person on board survived the crash while 18 people, 14 of them German and Australian nationals, were killed.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news