A MAJOR search was underway last night after reports that a plane with two people on board had crashed near a loch in Argyll.

Lifeboats, helicopters and the police were dispatched after the light aircraft lost radar contact near Beinn Nan Lus, a boggy hill near Glen Kinglass around 30 miles east of Oban.

However, rescue workers have failed to find any sign of debris amid suggestions that the report may have been a "mis-sighting".

A spokesman for Police Scotland said an emergency call was made at 1.50pm on Saturday in relation to the incident. The force said two people were on board, but there were no details on the model of plane involved.

The plane was travelling from central Scotland to Tiree when it reportedly dived, possibly crashing into Loch Etive.

A spokesman for Oban Lifeboat Station confirmed that there had been a report of a plane disappearing behind hills over the Loch and said that a search has been carried out by a lifeboat.

It was later stood down after no trace of wreckage was found in Loch Etive.

They said: "Someone made the report and we have been searching the Loch but nothing has been found and the boat is now returning.

"The initial report may have been a complete mis-sighting. At this stage we don't know much but if there is no plane in the Loch it ceases to be a coastguard operation."

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency earlier said that three coastguard teams had been sent to the scene.