..., which was carrying 19 people.

[sunsunmoon]

A plane carrying tourists to view Mount Everest crashed while attempting to land in dense fog in Nepal on Sunday, police and eyewitnesses said. A witness said 18 bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the plane, which was carrying 19 people.
(From Everest sightseers killed in Nepal crash - World - CBC News)

If the first sentence had started with "A plane carrying 19 tourists," wouldn't the second sentence need , which was carrying 19 people?

[emsr2d2]

A plane carrying tourists to view Mount Everest crashed while attempting to land in dense fog in Nepal on Sunday, police and eyewitnesses said. A witness said 18 bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the plane, which was carrying 19 people.
(From Everest sightseers killed in Nepal crash - World - CBC News)

If the first sentence had started with "A plane carrying 19 tourists," wouldn't the second sentence need , which was carrying 19 people?

A plane carrying 19 tourists might not be the same as a plane carrying 19 people.

To me "carrying 19 people" would include the passengers and the crew (pilot, co-pilot etc). "Carrying 19 people" would just be the passengers and then you would need to add the crew, so there would probably have been about 22 people on board.

This could well have been a plane carrying 16 tourists but the plane crashed carrying 19 people.