An emergency response team spent more than three hours searching for an aircraft that had disappeared.

The RNLI all-weather lifeboat in Sheerness was launched after reports the UK Coastguard had received a distress call.

The call came in at 5.10pm last Tuesday (November 5) before the aircraft vanished from the radar.

A volunteer crew of six was tasked to commence a search, working with lifeboats from Southend and Burnham, plus the UK Coastguard Rescue helicopter.

Arriving at the scene around 5.50pm, they carried out various search patterns and looked for debris or signs of anyone in the water.

There was an extensive scout of Middle Deep, Barrow Deep and Knock John in the Thames Estuary to the east of Foulness Island, Essex.

With nothing untoward found the lifeboats were stood down at 9.30pm and returned to their respective stations.