Search for missing aircraft

A plane with five people on board disappeared from the radar one hour after departure from an airport in South Carolina and probably landed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Piper PA-31 had taken off at Robert F. Swinnie Airport in Andrews and on their way to the Bahamas. The American coastguard said that a distress signal was received. The contact with the cockpit was broken when the aircraft was about 175 kilometers east of Charleston. The identity of the occupants has not been disclosed.