Associated Press - October 14, 2009 12:05 AM ET

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Authorities are looking for a small airplane that took off from Wyoming but did not land at its final destination in southern Montana.

Monique Lay, a duty officer with Montana Disaster and Emergency Services, says the Cessna aircraft left Sheridan, Wyo., at 11 a.m. Tuesday and was expected to land in Laurel, Mont., near Billings after about a two-hour flight. She says she was told by Montana aeronautics officials that two people were aboard.

Lay says local law enforcement officials in Yellowstone, Big Horn and Carbon counties have been contacted to keep an eye out for the plane.

A dispatcher for the Big Horn County Sheriff's office confirmed that an "initial" ground search was under way in the Fort Smith area.

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