MANTEO — A unnamed person is missing after an airplane he and another person were aboard went down this morning in Croatan Sound, while approaching Dare County Regional Airport, officials said.

 

A female, assumed to be the passenger, was rescued from the water and is being hospitalized, Airport Director Robert Benson said. Benson said that a search for the male, assumed to be the pilot, was called off at sundown, and that the search would resume Monday.

 

Coast Guard teams, including from Elizabeth City, participated in the search, along with numerous other rescuers in Dare County. Benson said of one of his staffers, who was participating in the search, was able to get the female into a boat. Benson said he believes the female was fortunate because of his staffer’s experience in rescuing.

 

The plane, a twin-engine Piper Seneca, was approaching from the west, but no one saw the plane go into the water, Benson said.

 

The name of the male and the name of the female and her condition were unavailable this evening. Benson said he believes the female going to be OK, given what she experienced.

 

Dorothy Killingsworth, a Dare County spokeswoman, said conditions were foggy at the time of the plane’s disappearance. Killingsworth said the plane’s disappearance occurred between 11:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.

 

Benson said that there were no distress signals prior to the plane’s disappearance and that the plane remains submerged in the sound.

 

He said that officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been notified.