NEW ORLEANS — The United Cajun Navy believes it has made a major breakthrough in the search for a plane that went missing over Lake Pontchartrain earlier this week.

Crews on Saturday located what they described as a “large object” in the lake believed to be the fuselage of the Cessna aircraft that disappeared Monday.

“We found a rather large piece of what we believe to be the fuselage of the plane,” said Josh Gill with the United Cajun Navy.

Two people, an instructor pilot and a student, were on board when the plane took off from the Million Air terminal in Gulfport, Mississippi, on Nov. 24. When the aircraft approached the New Orleans area, it lost contact with air traffic control and vanished. Both individuals are now presumed dead.

“It was a catastrophic event here with this plan

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