The names of the two pilots who died in a plane crash in Richmond, B.C. on Thursday night have been released. The victims have been identified as 28-year-old Jeremy Sunderland and 23-year-old Matthew Pedersen. Both had a thirst for life and a passion for flying.

Sunderland and Pedersen often flew together.

Last Thursday, the pair was making a regular run back from Victoria to Vancouver when their Piper Navajo plane slammed into the parking lot of a Richmond auto body shop on its final approach to the airport.

Canadian Air Charters has been left to mourn the loss of two pilots and ground all flights until Sunday.

Sunderland had been with the company for three years, while Pederson had been at the firm for over a year. "They will be missed greatly,'' said Mark Wilcox, an operations manager with Canadian Air Charters.

News of the crash is a devastating blow to family and friends like Ben and Tyler Kaplan, who grew up with Sunderland in Tsawwassen.

"I didn't know what happened initially, I just knew that a plane had gone down,'' said Ben Kaplan. "My first thought was to call his phone because I know he flies those flights in the evening. Yes I just had a bad feeling,"

They knew he had found his calling the first time he flew.

"I remember the first time he talked about doing a solo flight. He was sort of floating on thin air. You could tell it was what he wanted to do,'' said Tyler Kaplan.

But at the same time, Sunderland was no stranger to tragedy.

In 2005, the company he used to work for, Nav Air lost four pilots in two separate crashes.

Many people may have quit after that, but his friends say Sunderland stuck with it and had dreams of being a commercial pilot.

"For guys like Jeremy who went through it, he persevered because he loved it so much,'' said Ben Kaplan. "That just shows you what kind of guy he was. He was a go-getter."

The Transportation Safety Board was still examining pieces of the wreckage on Saturday.

Many of the pieces were charred and destroyed beyond recognition.

The investigation could take months before there is an answer for what happened, leaving both Pedersen and Sunderland's families without answers.

"It's a weird thing, but for some weird reason, it always seems it's the best people who go first. I don't know why, but it's true right now, the best always go, it's unfortunate,'' said Kaplan.

With a report by CTV British Columbia's Leah Hendry.