KATMANDU: Two pilots were killed after a small passenger plane crashed in western Nepal on Friday, an army official said, just days after 23 people were killed in a similar accident in the Himalayan nation.

All other nine passengers have survived, an airport official said.

It is not clear what caused the accident, which came two days after a Twin Otter turboprop plane crashed into a mountainside in Nepal killing all 23 people on board.

“A helicopter has landed at the site for rescue. The two pilots are dead, the nine passengers are injured,” said Bhola Prasad Guragain, a spokesman for the Tribhuwan International Airport in Katmandu.

Guragain said the plane had landed “in a flat area” but appeared to have sustained a major impact at the front, where the pilots were sitting. “We are trying to get more details,” he added.

Nine of those aboard the aircraft were injured in the crash, army officer Tara Bahadur Karki said.”The helicopter will airlift the injured for treatment.”

The Kasthamandap Air plane was carrying nine passengers and two pilots when it took off from an airport in the town of Nepalgunj, 300 km west of Katmandu.

It was headed for Jumla, a remote area in the mountainous far west of the country where road access is poor. The incident spotlights the poor safety record of Nepal’s aviation industry, particularly after Wednesday’s crash in bad weather in the same region, which was the country’s second air disaster in as many years.

The plane, operated by Kasthamandap Airlines, was on a flight from Nepalgunj in the southwest to Jumla.

A search and rescue party had set out for the crash site on foot, chief district official Pradeep Shrestha said.

Air travel is popular in Nepal, which has only a limited road network. Many communities, particularly in the mountains and hills, are accessible only on foot or by air.

The country, which is still reeling from a devastating earthquake last April, has suffered a number of air disasters in recent years, dealing a blow to its tourist industry.

Most have been attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and inadequate maintenance.

The European Union blacklisted all Nepal’s airlines in 2013.