A small plane carrying six people, including four British businessmen, has disappeared along Brazil's northeastern coast, a Brazilian airline said on Saturday.

The Cessna 310 owned by AeroStar airline went missing on its flight from Salvador to the coastal town of Ilheus on Friday afternoon, a spokesman for the airline told Reuters. Its last contact with the Ilheus control tower was at 5:43 p.m. local time, nine minutes before its scheduled landing, he said.

Brazil suffered two major airplane crashes in 2006 and 2007, which were followed by on-and-off chaos at its airports and widespread concern over air traffic safety.

The four missing British passengers are Sean Woodhall, Ricky Every, Alan Trevor Kempson, and Nigel Young Hodges, the spokesman said. Two Brazilians piloted the plane, he said.

The four were prospecting for potential real estate development projects along the coast of the state of Bahia, another AeroStar official said.

Bad weather had prevented them from taking a helicopter in Salvador earlier on Friday, Globo news agency reported.

The air force, coast guard, and police interrupted their search at dusk on Saturday but are to resume at dawn on Sunday, AeroStar said.