JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Hundreds of Florida students of a defunct helicopter company got some good news when with a $17 million tentative agreement that would forgive most of each student's $70,000 loan in tuition for fight-school services never received.

Nevada-based Silver State Helicopter Flight declared bankruptcy in February 2008 and closed its 34 flight schools nationwide -- including one at Craig Airport -- one week after the National Transportation Safety Board issued a report on a fatal March 2007 of one of the company's helicopters on Ponte Vedra Beach.

A flight instructor and student passenger were killed during a training flight that federal investigators blamed on poor aircraft maintenance.

An estimated 300 to 350 students from Florida were left on the hook for loans when Silver State Helicopter School abruptly closed its facility at Craig Airport, Lakeland, Melbourne and Ft. Lauderdale last year.

Each student enrolled in Silver State's 18-month helicopter training program paid $70,000 in tuition up front, mostly in loans from one preferred lender, Student Loan Xpress.

"Me, being right out of high school trying to start a career -- not just an everyday job --thinking I'm gong to become a pilot and then they shut their doors on me," former Silver State student Chad Ownby said. "Now I can't go back to school and get financial aid from anywhere else. I still have this credit saying I have $70,000 to pay."

On Friday, a small group of the students will meet with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, who was among the first to take up their cause.

While the students sought relief in the court system, Nelson asked federal authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding the school’s closing. He is now asking the federal government to look into possible criminal charges against the owner of the flight school.

"It looks like a Ponzi scheme, and the Department of Justice ought to be going after this fellow who perpetrated this scheme -- that he was going to train helicopter pilots and did not deliver," Nelson told Channel 4's Jim Piggott.

Nelson said he also wants to make sure is that the students don’t get hit a second time with another payment down the road due to the Internal Revenue Service treating the forgiven portion of someone’s loan as income.

According to published reports, the Florida Attorney General's Office received more than 300 complaints after the school filed for bankruptcy.