SUSSEX, N.J. (AP) – State police suspended the search Sunday night for a small plane that disappeared after taking off from a rural airstrip in northwest New Jersey.

Authorities planned to resume hunting for the single-engine aircraft around the hilly woodlands near Sussex Airport after daybreak Monday.

A Federal Aviation Administration radar facility in Westbury, N.Y., lost contact with the plane at 7:30 a.m., said Jim Peters, spokesman for the FAA.

The Cessna 182 took off from the single-strip Sussex Airport on its way to Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, Conn., after the pilot contacted the FAA for clearance to take off, officials said.

The plane was only 4 miles south of the airport, in the Hardyston Township area, when radar showed the pilot starting to turn back, Peters said.

The plane then disappeared from radar, Peters said.

Only the pilot was believed to be aboard. No further information was immediately available.

Weather at the airport was overcast early Sunday morning, but visibility was good below the clouds, said airport manager Paul Styger.

State police, who have jurisdiction in rural municipalities around the airport, led about 75 state and local personnel on the ground search. A state police helicopter conducted an aerial search of the region.

Volunteer pilots at Sussex Airport also assisted in the search from the air, Styger said.

State police said those searches were halted about 9 p.m.