A flight instructor and student pilot are presumed dead after a small aircraft that departed from Million Air in Gulfport, Mississippi, crashed into Lake Pontchartrain this week, according to the owner of Apollo Flight Training and Aircraft Management.
Michael Carastro, who operates the Gulfport-based flight school, said he confirmed with the U.S. Coast Guard that debris recovered from the lake matches their aircraft. Search and recovery operations remain underway.
Carastro told WBRZ that preliminary information does not suggest mechanical failure. He said there was no distress call from the aircraft before it went down, and early data points away from equipment issues as a cause.
Carastro described the instructor as an experienced pilot who was approaching the next step in her aviation career.
“[The instructor] was coming up on 1,200 to 1,300 hours, which makes her about 200 short of meeting her requirements for the airlines, which was her ultimate goal,” he said.
He added that the student was working toward a commercial instruction license.
Their names have not been released. Carastro said families are being notified, and the company will wait to identify the instructor and student until that process is complete.
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