HONOLULU -- Teams continued to search by land and air through a second day for a missing tour plane on the Big Island.

The Cessna 172 took off from the Kona Airport Tuesday morning for a tour of Kilauea and the Big Island, but it did not return.

Sources confirmed the pilot is Katsuhiro Takahashi, the chief flight instructor for Hawaii Flight Academy. The two passengers aboard the plane were Japanese visitors, according to tourism industry officials on the Big Island.

The Island Hoppers' pilot has plenty of experience flying on the Big Island, sources told KITV. Sources in the aviation industry said he has been flying there for three years, with several thousand hours of experience flying the same route on the island of Hawaii.

The tour company's General Manager Wendy Hart released a statement saying, "All our efforts and thoughts are focused on the safe return of our passengers and pilot."

There was good visibility overall, but searchers had a tough time over the Ka'u Forest Preserve near the Kilauea Volcano.

"It was shrouded in rain and cloud, and for the most part very difficult to see in some of these deeper areas," Coast Guard spokesman Lt. John Titchen said.

There has been no sign of the Cessna in the forest area.

"It is very rugged, densely forested -- lot of native trees in that area. It's just a very inaccessible area, lot of canyons and crevices," Titchen said.

The plane left Kona Airport at 10:15 a.m.

Hawaii County Fire Department teams searched the Hakalau Forest Reserve by land while Coast Guard aircraft scanned from above.

At one point during the night the Coast Guard detected an intermittent signal from an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon in the Hakalau Forest Reserve. The search focused on that area, without any luck.

Officials then widened the search.

The missing plane, a Cessna A 172 with the tail number N 13713, was operated by the Hawaii Flight Academy, formerly known as Sporty's.