GREENACRES, Fla. — The co-pilot of the Learjet 60 that plummeted into a Palm Beach County roadway on Sunday, killing all nine people on board, has been identified by her family as 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, a Boca Raton resident who earned her private pilot’s license while still in high school.
Gadelha’s mother and stepfather confirmed her identity to the New York Post on Monday. A separate confirmation came from her father to WPLG. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office had not released an official identification as of Monday morning.
Gadelha was at the controls of the business jet as it traveled from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.
The aircraft, a 22-year-old Learjet 60 registered as N722BD, is listed in FAA records to LR60271 LLC, a Delaware company.
FAA-derived operator data also lists the jet on the Part 135 charter certificate of Aurora Aviation, Inc., according to reporting by the International Business Times. It was not immediately clear whether Sunday’s flight was conducted under charter or private rules.
Sunday’s flight ended at about 12:50 p.m. when the jet entered a steep nosedive and struck South Military Trail near 10th Avenue North in Greenacres, a few miles southwest of West Palm Beach. The impact created a crater in the roadway, scattered debris across the area, and sent thick black smoke into the sky.
No one on the ground was reported injured, but about 600 residents of a nearby mobile home community were evacuated and relocated to shelters. John I. Leonard High School, near the crash scene, was closed on Monday.
Air traffic control recordings captured the final moments of the flight. The pilot reported light icing and moderate turbulence before the situation deteriorated rapidly.
“We’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed, according to recordings captured by LiveATC.net.
Moments later, the pilot transmitted:
“We are in an overspeed condition, descending 20,000 feet per minute”.
The final transmission before impact was a blunt acknowledgment:
“We’re going to crash into the ground”.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Watch the crash video here:
The cause of the crash has not been determined yet.
NTSB officials were expected to hold a news conference in West Palm Beach on Monday afternoon to provide an update. A preliminary report is typically released within two weeks of an accident, with a final report expected in 12 to 24 months.
Gadelha’s path to the cockpit was unusually swift. She began ground school in 2020 and logged 88 flight hours before earning her private pilot’s license in September 2023 at age 17, while attending West Boca Raton High School.
The School District of Palm Beach County’s Aviation Academy paid for her pilot’s license after introducing the program that year.
In a 2023 interview with CBS12, she said she had learned about aviation from her father, who began flying recreationally in 2018.
“I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly,’” she told the station.
She had recently posted on social media about earning commercial, multi-engine, and instrument qualifications alongside her boyfriend, writing:
“How often do you see 2 pilots under 21” with those ratings.
Here’s the leaked audio:
Military Trail remained closed between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North on Monday, and officials said the closure could last for weeks as investigators work at the scene and the damaged roadway is assessed.
Here we collected some of the most beautiful photos of Nathalia Filgueiras:
A memorial Mass for the nine victims was scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday at Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery in Royal Palm Beach.
