Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- A search team in eastern Nepal found a helicopter that crashed two days ago with 24 people on board, including a Nepalese minister, a U.S. official, a Finnish diplomat and seven workers with WWF International, which chartered the craft. No survivors were found.

``It has been found near the helicopter departure point,'' Mohan Adhikari, director general of Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority, said in a telephone interview from Kathmandu. ``It appears that the primary factor for the crash has been the weather. The weather was too bad.''

The aircraft was found at 1 p.m. local time today about 1.9 kilometers (1.2 miles) from its departure point in Ghunsa, near Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, Adhikari said. Seven rescuers who hiked there after being air-dropped at Ghunsa yesterday found no survivors, he said.

Among those on board the Shree Air helicopter were Nepal's Minister of State for Soil Conservation Gopal Rai, Pauli Mustonen, Finland's charge d'affaires in Nepal, and Margaret Alexander, the U.S. Agency for International Development's deputy mission director. The craft also carried seven workers with the environmental group WWF International.

Debris was scattered across the crash site, and several people were seen lying in the wreckage, all presumed dead, Finland's foreign ministry said in a statement on its Web site.

A combination of rugged terrain and bad weather meant the rescuers couldn't be picked up, Adhikari said.

``It's a very remote and mountainous area,'' the official said. ``The weather is continuously bad and they are still on the ground waiting to be picked up.''

WWF Staff

The helicopter had been on a 20-minute flight to Taplejung from Ghunsa when it disappeared, WWF said yesterday in an e- mailed statement. The conservation group is known as World Wildlife Fund in the U.S. and Canada. The search involved five helicopters, including two from the Nepalese Army, WWF said.

The officials and WWF staff were returning from a ceremony at which the Nepalese Government handed over conservation of the wildlife -- including snow leopards and red pandas -- and habitats around Kangchenjunga to local people, WWF said.

WWF said four of its staff on the flight were Nepalese: Chandra Gurung, head of its Nepal division, Mingma Norbu Sherpa, Yeshi Lama, and Harka Gurung. Also aboard were Jillian Bowling Schlaepfer, a Swiss and Australian national with the group's U.K. division, Jennifer Headley, a Canadian also with the British unit, and Matthew Preece, an American with the U.S. office.

`Blow to Conservation'

WWF said in an e-mailed statement today that there appear to be no survivors, and that the loss of life, when confirmed, would be the biggest in the group's 45-year history.

``The colleagues we have lost had dedicated their lives to conserving the extraordinary natural resources of Nepal and of the Earth,'' WWF Director General James Leape said in today's statement. ``Their deaths are a huge blow to conservation efforts in Nepal, and worldwide. They will be greatly missed.''

USAID said yesterday that as well as Margaret Alexander, a Nepalese environmental specialist with the agency, Bijnan Acharya, was also on the helicopter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 25, 2006 08:10 EDT