A small plane carrying German and Australian tourists has crashed near Mt Everest, killing everyone on board except one of the pilots.

There were 19 people on the Twin Otter plane, operated by Yeti Airlines, as it tried to land in foggy weather at Lukla, a tiny mountain airport high up in the Himalayas, 40 miles from the world's highest mountain.

The aircraft snagged its wheels on a security fence as it came in to land, say airport officials. As it hit the ground it caught fire and came to rest inside the airport perimeter. Security staff and volunteers were reported to have taken two hours to put out the blaze.

The dead included 12 German, two Australian and two Nepalese tourists, as well as two of the three Nepalese crew members.

Hundreds of tourists and local people gathered to watch the rescue and recovery attempts, many in tears.

The pilot who survived was flown by helicopter to hospital in Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, 80 miles (125km) to the southwest. His condition was not immediately known.

The crash happened in poor weather conditions, with low cloud creating a visibility of 400 metres (1,310 ft) - just enough to make a landing viable.

“According to initial reports we have it crashed before it was to land and caught fire,” said Yagya Prasad Gautam, chief of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). “The accident was probably caused by a last minute change in the weather.”

Lukla airport itself - a key arrival point for trekkers and mountaineers, and known as the gateway to Everest - was built in the 1960s with money from a trust set up by the New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, in order to make Everest expeditions easier and bring new sources of income to the Sherpa people who live nearby. It was renamed Tenzing-Hillary airport earlier this year.

The airport is said to be small, and is made up of little more than a steeply sloping runway a mere 550 metres long (1,800 ft) carved from the side of the Himalayas at a precipitous altitude of 2,800 metres (9.200 ft). At the end of the runway is a drop of several hundred metres.

It has a reputation among travellers for its astonishing scenery, and abrupt, stomach-churning landings. Bad weather frequently forces it to close, and accidents are not unknown. In 2005, nine passengers and three crew on a Gorka Airlines flight survived a crash, suffering minor injuries.

Tourists arriving at Lukla have a walk of several days to reach the Mt Everest base camp.

"We are devastated to hear of this accident," said Ang Tsering Sherpa, the president of the Asian Alpine Associations. "In the season there are up to 50 flights per day into Lukla so the pilots are very used to landing there."

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