NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 30 (UPI) — Authorities have found the bodies of two missing people who went down with a small plane in Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain over the weekend, officials said Tuesday.
The Cessna disappeared on Saturday night near New Orleans’ Lakefront Airport. The plane carried three people but just one, a woman, survived.
Officials and the U.S. Coast Guard had been searching for the remaining two before they called off the search Monday night. When the plane was pulled from the lake Tuesday, the bodies of the other two were found inside, officials said.
One of the victims was identified as 25-year-old Reginald Hillard, Jr., the New Orleans Advocate reported.
Hillard’s girlfriend, Brianna Davis, was named as the survivor. The pilot was identified as Jim Biondo, 58.
Relatives said Hillard was afraid of flying, but set aside his fears when Davis surprised him with an aerial tour of the city.
“The couple had hired the aircraft to take them on a night time flight around the city of New Orleans,” Lakefront Airport Director Ben Morris said.
“It’s a very sad thing because she did tell us that she and her boyfriend were holding hands when she slipped out of the aircraft.”
