The Coast Guard was searching late last night in Puget Sound along the Edmonds waterfront for a missing Airlift Northwest helicopter carrying a pilot and two nurses.

The helicopter took off from Harborview Medical Center about 9 p.m. and was expected to arrive at an Airlift base in Arlington at 9:25 p.m., said Coast Guard Lt. Gregory Crettol. He said the Coast Guard dispatched a 41-foot rescue vessel and a helicopter from Port Angeles. Snohomish County Search and Rescue also responded.

As of 12:30 a.m., there was no sign of the missing aircraft.

Airlift said in a statement it last had contact with the pilot at 9:14 p.m., and there were no patients on board.

At least two Airlift helicopters have crashed in the past decade. In 2002, a pilot was critically injured when the engines on his aircraft failed and the chopper crashed near the town of Baring south of Highway 2.

In September 1995, an Airlift medical-evacuation helicopter crashed in Puget Sound off Bainbridge Island, killing the pilot and two nurses.

According to Airlift's Web site, each flight team consists of two registered nurses, and teams respond to emergencies in Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and western Canada. Airlift was established in 1982 and is headquartered in Seattle.