The Yeti Airlines flight with 68 passengers and four crew plummeted into a steep gorge, smashed into pieces and burst into flames as it approached the central city of Pokhara on Sunday.

All those on board, who included six children as well as 15 foreigners, are believed to have died.

Rescuers have been working almost around the clock extracting human remains from the 300-metre (1,000-foot) deep gorge strewn with twisted plane seats and chunks of fuselage and wing.

Seventy bodies had been retrieved by early Tuesday, police official AK Chhetri told AFP. Another senior official told AFP on Monday the hope of finding anyone alive was "nil".

"We retrieved one body last night. But it was three pieces. We are not sure whether it's three bodies or one body. It will be confirmed only after DNA test," he said.

"The search (for) the missing two other bodies has now resumed," Chhetri said.

Drones were being used and the search had been expanded to a radius of two to three kilometres (one to two miles), he said.

Up to 10 bodies were transferred by army truck from Pokhara hospital to the airport ready to be airlifted back to the capital, Kathmandu.

Another three bodies were handed over to grieving families in Pokhara, with others due to follow.

© Agence France-Presse