Norwegian military aircraft missing, five on board Two Norwegian Sea King SAR helicopters, which is part of the search rescue effort for a...

Norwegian military aircraft missing, five on board

Two Norwegian Sea King SAR helicopters, which is part of the search rescue effort for a missing Norwegian C-130 Hercules aircraft, refuel at the airport in Kiruna March 15, 2012. (RETUERS/Fredric Alm/Scanpix Sweden)

OSLO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A Norwegian military transport plane with five people on board was reportedly missing on Thursday en route from an airport in northern Norway to Sweden.

The Hercules aircraft, which was participating in the annual exercise coded Cold Response, did not land at Kiruna airport in Swden, as expected, the Rescue Coordination Center of North Norway was quoted as saying.

The rescue center got the message from Swedish air traffic service at 15:50 local time (1450 GMT) that the Hercules C130-J aircraft had not arrived as scheduled.

Contact with the transport plane was lost eight miles (12.8 kilometers) west of Kiruna, said John Espen Lien, a Norwegian military spokesman.

The aircraft took off from Evenes airport in northern Norway at 13:41 local time (1241 GMT).

Two aircraft and four helicopters have been sent to search for the missing Hercules plane. But a Sea King helicopter had to return due to the bad weather condition.

The Swedish Rescue Services was also engaged in the search and rescue operation.

Distress signal had been detected from the Kebnekaise mountain, said the Swedish news agency TT.