The Bermuda Police Service has confirmed that a Bermudian woman and her young son were among those aboard a medical transport aircraft that went missing off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, this week.

According to police, the pair had been travelling on an air ambulance flight when contact with the aircraft was lost over the Atlantic. Search and rescue crews in the United States have been scouring the waters near Nantucket for signs of the plane and its occupants. Authorities in Bermuda said they are in close contact with their American counterparts as the operation continues.

The names of the mother and child have been released locally, and police have asked the community to respect the family's privacy during what officials described as an agonising wait for news. Support services are being made available to relatives on the island.

The disappearance has cast a pall over Bermuda, where medical evacuations by air are a routine but vital link to specialist care unavailable locally. Government officials expressed solidarity with the family and said they are monitoring developments closely. Further updates are expected as the US-led search effort progresses and investigators work to determine what happened to the aircraft in the moments before it vanished from radar.