The co-pilot of the Learjet 60 aircraft which crashed and claimed nine lives in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday has been identified as Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, an aspiring commercial pilot who obtained her private pilot’s license even before finishing high school at the age of 20.
According to the information released by Filgueiras’ mother and stepfather, Camila and Thiago Corteleti, to the New York Post, the young pilot, who was born and raised in Boca Raton, had clocked over 1,300 flight hours as well as working for Upper Jets – a privately owned airline based in Fort Lauderdale – as a commercial pilot for the last nine months.
The Learjet was flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it suddenly descended sharply, falling over 20,000 feet per minute and slamming into the ground near Greenacres, creating a crater from which smoke was seen rising. Disturbing air traffic control recording reveals how the pilot called out “Mayday” and then said, “We’re going to crash into the ground.”
Filgueiras had texted her boyfriend only ten minutes prior to the incident, telling him that she was facing turbulence and icing, as per her stepfather. “I wanted her to fulfil her dream, but I understood very well that her dream was the thing that would make her leave me,” her mother said. “I know she was following her dream.”
Filgueiras hit the local news headlines in 2023 after she received a pilot’s license when she was 17 years old, even before she got her driver’s license.
Her education was financed by the School District of Palm Beach County’s Aviation Academy. “I definitely do brag because people tell me, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I say to them, ‘Yes, I can drive, but I can fly as well,'” she said in an interview with CBS12.
No identity of the remaining eight victims has been released by the authorities yet. An investigation into the reason behind the crash is being conducted by the FAA and the NTSB.
