The New Delhi-bound plane crashed some six kilometres southwest of Kathmandu shortly after take-off at 7.45 pm, said a civil aviation official. ``As soon as the aircraft took off from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), it produced loud noises and failed to gain the altitude to cross the 2020-metre high bare rocky mountain at the Talku Dudechaur VDC,'' he said.

The plane, operated by a joint venture between German Airlines, Lufthansa, and the London based Hindujas, was carrying about 21 tonnes of cargo comprising mostly Nepalese carpets and garments for West European markets.

The wreckage was scattered across one km in Talku Dudechaur village, close to the TIA, but inaccessible to vehicles or mule drivers a four-hour climb away after a 20-km drivefrom the airport. Army and police rescue teams struggled to reach the site on foot and by helicopter and were sifting through the wreckage to gather body parts, witnesses said on Thursday.

The pilot, US citizen Ricardo Nicholas Gonzalez, and the four Indian crew members -- First Officer and co-pilot Anil Sahani, Flight Engineer Dinesh Chandra Bhargav and cabin attendants Jagadish Singh and Soraj Kumar Rai -- died in the accident.