The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said a Nepal Army chopper has landed at a suspected Tara Air plane crash site in Mustang, based on tracking the captain's cell phone, Nepal's news portal My Republica reported.

The plane went missing in mountainous Nepal on Sunday with 22 people on board during cloudy weather, and officials said search teams had been sent to the site of a fire spotted by local residents. 

State-owned Nepal Television said villagers had seen an aircraft on fire at the source of the Lyanku Khola River at the foot of the Himalayan mountain Manapathi.

CAAN stated that the Twin Otter plane with call sign "9N-AET" had its last contact with the control tower around 10:07 a.m. local time.

"Ground search teams are proceeding toward that direction," said Tara Air spokesperson Sudarshan Gartaula, referring to the fire site. "It could be a fire by villagers or by cowherds. It could be anything."

The airline said the plane was carrying four Indians, two Germans and 16 Nepalis, including three crew.

The plane flew from the tourist town of Pokhara, some 125 km west of the capital, Kathmandu. It was headed for Jomsom, which is about 80 km northwest of Pokhara.

"One search helicopter returned to Jomsom due to bad weather without locating the plane," CAAN said in a statement. 

"Helicopters are ready to take off for search from Kathmandu, Pokhara and Jomsom once weather conditions improve. Army and police search teams have left towards the site." 

The weather office said there had been thick cloud cover in the Pokhara-Jomson area since the morning.

(With input from Reuters; Mahendra Subedi also contributed to the story.)