Co-pilot involved in fatal Florida plane crash identified as 20-year-old woman who got licence in school
A young woman who was understood to have been the co-pilot on the private jet that plummeted to the ground in Florida has now been identified.
She has been named as Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, who was just 20 years old, and had got her pilot license while still in high school.
She was one of six who were confirmed to have died when the Learjet 60 aircraft suddenly nosedived to the ground before erupting into a ball of flames.
Nathalia was previously interviewed by CBS12 News aged just 17 after obtaining her private pilot’s license in 2023, before she even had her driving license.
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“I definitely do brag because people say, ‘oh you can’t drive,' and I’m like, 'yeah but I can fly,’” she said at the time.
In pictures posted on social media, Nathalia had shared snaps of her in the cockpit of jets, including one post on Threads where she wrote: "LearJet60!!!!! ALL GLORY TO GOD! AMEM!"
The Learjet60 business jet involved had nosedived into a neighbourhood in Palm Beach County and exploded, narrowly missing nearby homes and businesses.
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy posted on X on Sunday (1 November) that the Learjet 60 crashed at 12.50pm local time close to Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, calling it a 'horrific tragedy'.
The jet was travelling from Austin, Texas, and was bound for the Bahamas when tragedy struck.
Young aviator Nathalia previously told the media she began pilot lessons in 2020, but was also taught by her dad, who learned flying some years prior.
"I think it’s cool," she said. "Some people think that it’s weird that I can fly planes, but I can’t drive a car, I mean I can but, a lot of people think it’s funny."
Most of the posts on her online Threads account showed selfies and photos of her beside jets and sharing her passion for flying.
Investigations into cause ongoing
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but federal investigators are expected to provide an update on Monday. It was suspected that 's
Pilots and aviation experts have told LADbible that 'severe icing' and weather conditions could have caused the plane to plummet and explained exactly how it happens.
Palm Beach County authorities evacuated about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community while the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigate the crash.
According to flight tracking services, the plane was heading east at 35,000 feet when the pilot started to report problems.
The pilot said ice was accumulating on the jet and that turbulence was jolting it by as much as 700 feet (213 meters), according to air traffic control recordings shared online.
“We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” the pilot told controllers before the situation deteriorated.
The pilot requested permission to climb another 2,000 feet then quickly declared an emergency as the jet lost altitude at an alarming rate.
“We’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.
“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed, before delivering a devastating acknowledgment of what was about to happen: “We’re going to crash into the ground.”
Florida governor Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground injured or killed.
Authorities have not released the names of the people who died.
“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” he told reporters at the scene. “It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”
Video recorded by passers-by captured the terrifying moment the aircraft plunged from the sky before slamming into the ground and exploding.
Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater as shocked residents looked on in horror. Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site.
Topics: US News, World News
James Holt