A chopper of Fishtail Air deployed to search the missing Tara Air's Twin Otter aircraft returned to Jomsom owing to bad weather.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said that the aircraft was seen diverted to Mount Dhaulagiri from Lete and it went out of contact since then.

“A helicopter of Fishtail Air had gone to the area to search for the missing aircraft. But it returned to Jomsom due to adverse weather,” an official at the Civil Aviation Authority said.

The plane had taken off from for Jomsom from Pokhara at 9: 55 am today.

Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand has directed the concerned authorities to expedite the search operation.

There were 22 persons including three crew members on board the aircraft.

Meanwhile, a Nepal Army helicopter has just left for Lete, Mustang to search for the aircraft.