Grandparents and their two grandchildren are missing after a small plane disappeared off the Bahamas.

Search and rescue crews are scouring the Caribbean Sea after a light aircraft is believed to have crashed.

It was carrying an American family when it disappeared yesterday afternoon on their way from Andros Island to Miami.

The missing four have been named as Mario Lamar Senior, 80, Lili Lamar, 79, Sofi Sosa, 28, and Christian Sosa, 22.

Mr Lamar is an experienced pilot with more than 40 years of flying experience, the family told ABC News.

They were travelling in a PA-34 Piper five-seater aircraft with tail number N212ML, the police said.

The family said they were tracking the plane when it suddenly turned around and lost contact.

The Lamar and Sosa families pleaded with the authorities to ‘deploy every available resource to locate the aircraft and its four occupants as quickly as possible.’

They left the Great Harbour Cay at around 11.12am local time before losing contact.

The search operation was delayed by rough weather. More rain and thunder have been forecast for the rest of the week.

Bahamian Coast Guard said in a statement: ‘At approximately 2 p.m. the Royal Bahamian Defense Force requested Coast Guard assistance following a report of a downed airplane with 4 people aboard approximately 15 miles off Andros Island, Bahamas.’

In July, 10 people died after a Cessna 402C crashed in San Andros on North Andros Island.

There were no survivors after the plane crashed into a wooded area near the runway, bursting into flames.

The Bahamas are made of 700 islands and around 2,400 smaller coral islets or cays.

Most of the smaller islets are uninhabited, and 90% of the Bahamas’ 300,000 residents live on the islands of New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco.

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