The owner of the plane that crashed into Lake Pontchartrain about an hour after leaving a Mississippi Coast airport is mourning the presumed loss of two young pilots aboard the aircraft when it disappeared near New Orleans’ Lakefront Airport.

Michael Carastro of Apollo Aviation confirmed during a press conference the two victims were the company’s flight instructor, a woman, and a male student. Both were in their mid-20s and are presumed dead.

“It was an unbelievable tragedy,” he said at a press conference Tuesday at the Million Air terminal at the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport. “I've been instructing for 46 years ... this is my first (incident of any kind).”

Carastro declined to identify them, but he said the two were “very well-liked“ within the tight-knit community of Apoll

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