The wreckage of the training aircraft, which had been missing since Tuesday afternoon, was found late Wednesday in a remote area of northwest Georgia near the small town of LaFayette.

The cause of the crash has not been determined, Navy officials said.The deceased crew members are:

• Retired Navy Cmdr. Dave Roark, 68, of Pensacola.

• Navy Ensign Elizabeth Bonn, 23, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

• Air Force 1st Lt. Jason W. Davis, 28, of Vista, Calif.

• Navy Lt. Jason S. Manse, 30, of Canton, Ohio.

The crew members, who belonged to Training Squadron 86, were on a one-day routine training mission to Chattanooga, Tenn., Navy officials said.

The crew refueled the aircraft in Chattanooga and departed for Pensacola on Tuesday about 11 a.m. Twenty minutes later, the crew radioed in that they were nearing the entry point of their low-level route where the two navigator students — Davis and Bonn — could begin their visual navigation training, officials said.

That was the last time anyone heard from the crew, officials said.David Roark Jr. — son of Dave Roark, the pilot of the T-39 — said Thursday that family members were aware of the odds his father faced as an aviator.

“Over the years, there had been (aviation) accidents where close friends lost their lives,” said Roark, 39.

“We knew the risk was there. My dad just loved flying. It was the coolest job — he was almost 70 years old and flying, and he held the respect of everyone around him.”

A Navy mishap investigation team arrived Thursday at the crash site, said Lt. j.g. Sean Robertson, spokesman for the Naval Air Training Command in Corpus Christi, Texas.

A Georgia State Patrol helicopter assisting in the search operation found the wreckage in the remote and rugged terrain of the Chattahoochee National Forest.