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Kathmandu - Two Indian children aged nine and six were pulled out alive along with their father and three others from the wreckage of a small plane that crashed near a tricky airport around 2,600m above sea level in northern Nepal on Monday, killing 15 of the 21 people on board, mostly Indians.

Officials said 13 Indians killed in the crash included the mother of the two. Seven of them were from Mumbai and one from Hyderabad. It was unclear where the rest were from and the airline didn't identify the dead.

Kathmandu's Indian embassy identified three Indian survivors as Tirumala Kidambi Sreekanth, Tirumala Kidambi Sreevardhini (9) and Tirumala Kidambi Sreepada (6). They were airlifted to the tourist town of Pokhara for treatment along with other survivors - two Danes and a Nepalese air hostess. Officials said Sreekanth was admitted to Pokhara's Manipal Teaching Hospital ICU, while the two children were in a post-operative ward. B L Karna of Tribhuvan airport said the pilot aborted landing at Jomsom airport at the last moment and tried to return to Pokhara, 60km away, due to a technical problem.

Officials of Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International airport said the Agni Air Dornier 9N AIG, which crashed near Jomsom airport in Nepal, ploughed into the ground while it was trying to ascend. "The pilot had reported a warning light flashing in the cockpit as he descended to Jomsom. The aircraft seems to have lost balance," said B L Karna of rescue coordination committee at Tribhuvan airport.

Reports said the aircraft broke into pieces, but did not catch fire and that rescuers managed to reach the scene swiftly thanks to its proximity to an army camp. The crash was the second deadly air disaster involving the airline in less than two years and the fifth in Nepal in less than two years. It comes about eight months after 10 Indians were killed in another crash near Kathmandu. Jomsom Airport is among one of the world's most dangerous airfields due to the mountainous terrain on the approach.