Nepal Crash
Nepalese police personnel are seen at the crash site of Buddha Air plane in Lalitpur September 25, 2011. A small plane carrying foreign tourists to view Mount Everest crashed in bad weather near Nepal's capital Kathmandu on Sunday, killing all 19 people on board, officials said. Reuters

The crash of a Buddha Air flight in Nepal on Sunday has left all 19 people on board dead.

The small tourist plane was making an hour-long sightseeing tour of Mount Everest, and went down on its return to Katmandu, the Nepalese capital. The passengers included two Americas, one Japanese man and 10 Indians -- two from UNICEF-Nepal and eight who were taking a break from a business trip.

The airport lost contact with the plane at 7:31am and the crash took place soon after. All 19 persons on board including three crew members have died, said an employee of the rescue coordination center, according to The Hindustan Times.

The two Americans have been identified as Andrew Wade and Natalie Neilan. Further details have yet to be disclosed.

On Sunday, the Beechcraft 1900D propeller plane was heading toward Tribhuwan International Airport in Katmandu in foggy, low-visibility conditions. According to eye-witnesses, the plane hit the roof of a house in Bisankunarayan village, about 18 miles south of the capital

Eighteen of the passengers were killed instantly, while one died on the way to a hospital.

The Beechcraft 1900D was manufactured by Raytheon Aircraft from 1982 to 2002. Since its introduction, there have been 17 major Beechcraft 1900D crashes, nine of which occurred after the plane was taken off the assembly line. The plane can hold up to 21 people, flight crew included, and on two occasions all 21 people perished in a crash.

The first was in 1995, when an Air St. Martin plane crashed into a mountain in Haiti. The second occurred in January 2003, when a US Airways Express operated Beechcraft 1900D crashed into a hanger and burst into flames at the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.