Search for plane that crashed off North Carolina coast with eight on board including teens on hunting trip

Helicopter and boats sent to look for small aircraft

A US Coast Guard helicopter has been dispatched to look for the plane and passengers (Getty Images)

The US Coast Guard is searching for a plane that crashed off the coast of North Carolina with eight people on board.

Reports suggested the plane was flying “erratically” before falling into the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday afternoon.

Officials said the passengers included four teenagers who were returning home from a hunting trip. None of the passengers have been accounted for as of Monday afternoon.

In a statement, the US Coast Guard said it and local emergency responders were dispatched to search for the plane.

Copying the words of a radio control tower, the Coast Guard said the small aircraft was “seen behaving erratically on radar and then disappeared from the radar screen”.

That disappearance came at about 2pm on Sunday, and roughly four miles east of Drum Inlet – an inlet some 60 miles east of the city of Jacksonville.

Responders carried on looking for the plane on Monday with assistance from the National Park Service, fire departments and beach crews, the Coast Guard said in its statement.

A helicopter was also dispatched from Air Station Elizabeth City.