Nepalese authorities have recovered the bodies of all but one of the 22 people who were on board a plane that crashed in the nation's mountains.
The government has formed a panel to investigate the incident.
"The search for others is continuing," said Tek Raj Sitaula, a spokesperson for the Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.
"Chances of survival are low but our efforts continue to find them," said Deo Chandra Lal Karna, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
He said the plane "met an accident" at 14,500 feet (4,420 metres) in the Sanosware area of Thasang municipality in Mustang district, close to the mountain town of Jomsom.
The plane was heading to Sanosware after taking off from the resort town of Pokhara, 200 kilometres west of Kathmandu.
Aerial photos of the crash site show parts of the aircraft on some of Nepal's most remote mountains.
"Analysing the pictures we received, it seems that the flight did not catch fire", said Pokhara Airport spokesman Dev Raj Subedi.
"Everything is scattered in the site. The flight seems to have collided with a big rock on the hill," he said.
The search for the plane had been suspended due to bad weather and darkness on Sunday night but resumed on Monday.
Netra Prasad Sharma, the most senior bureaucrat in the Mustang district where the crash took place, said weather conditions remained challenging.
"There is very thick cloud in the area," he said.
Families among the victims
Four Indians and two Germans were on the plane. The three crew members and other passengers were Nepali nationals, including a computer engineer, his wife and their two daughters who had just returned from the United States.
The four Indians were a divorced couple and their daughter and son, aged 15 and 22, going on a family holiday.
The plane's destination is popular with foreign hikers who trek the mountain trails and also with Indian and Nepalese pilgrims who visit the revered Muktinath temple.
Plane model is prized for durability
According to tracking data from flightradar24.com, the 43-year-old aircraft took off from Pokhara at 9:55am (local time) and transmitted its last signal at 10:07am at an altitude of 3,900 metres.
The Twin Otter, a rugged plane originally built by Canadian aircraft manufacturer De Havilland, has been in service in Nepal for about 50 years, during which it has been involved in about 21 accidents, according to aviationnepal.com.
The plane, with its top-mounted wing and fixed landing gear, is prized for its durability and its ability to take off and land on short runways.
Production of the planes originally ended in the 1980s.
Another Canadian company, Viking Air, brought the model back into production in 2010.
Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Everest, has a record of air accidents.
Its weather can change suddenly and airstrips are typically located in mountainous areas that are hard to reach.
Wires/ABC
