WRECKAGE believed to be that of a light aircraft which took off from Staverton on Saturday has been found on an Irish mountainside.

Four people, believed to come from Almondsbury, were on board the single engine Piper PA-28 when it took off from the Gloucestershire Airport, in Staverton, at 10am.

However, the plane, which was due in to Kilrush airfield, to the west of Dublin, at 12.30pm, did not arrive at its destination.

A wrecked plane was spotted in the Wicklow mountain range, south-west of Dublin, on Sunday morning.

It is not yet know if any of the people on board the plane survived the crash.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Airport said that the people on board the plane, three of whom are said to be from the same family, were from Almondsbury, near Bristol.

The last radar sighting of the plane was at 12.30pm yesterday over the Wicklow mountains, about 20 miles out of Kilrush, according to the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).

An IAA spokeswoman said the alarm was raised at around 6pm BST by a relative of one of those on board.

Dublin Air Traffic Control monitored the aircraft before passing it over to Kilrush at 12.17pm, the IAA said.

Ian Valentine, the operator of Kilrush airfield, said he did not know the plane had intended landing at the strip until a male relative of the pilot contacted him.

Mr Valentine said the pilot, in his mid 40s, was experienced and had been flying for a long number of years.

The airfield chief said he had been flying into the airfield for the last six or seven years, usually twice annually, as he had relatives living in the close-by town of Newbridge.

Mr Valentine said he had received a text from the pilot earlier this week to say he was coming at the weekend.

But Mr Valentine said he would normally receive a call from the pilot the morning he was due to arrive, yet that did not happen yesterday.