Florida Learjet crash victims include 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha, as families identify nine killed
A Learjet 60 flying from Texas to the Bahamas crashed in Palm Beach County on Sunday, killing all nine aboard, with the young co-pilot and a Texas family among those identified by relatives.
All nine people on board a private jet that crashed in Florida on Sunday have been identified in part by their families, after the Learjet 60 plunged into a residential area of Palm Beach County and burst into flames, killing everyone aboard and leaving a crater in the ground. The aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was heading for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas when it came down at about 12:50pm local time on Sunday near Cresthaven, in Palm Beach County, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed on Sunday afternoon that all nine people on board had died, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground being killed or injured, despite debris being scattered near homes and a busy road. Among those identified by family is the plane's 20-year-old co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, whose mother and stepfather confirmed to the New York Post that she was co-piloting the flight. Her family, who are Brazilian but live in Florida, said she was born in the state and grew up in Palm Beach County, and her sister Giulia told reporters outside their Boca Raton home that her sister had fought until the last moment she could. Filgueiras had earned her private pilot's licence at just 17, in October 2023, before she had a driving licence, and her mother, Camila Gadelha Corteleti, said she had logged more than 1,300 hours of flight time. She worked for Upper Jets, a private charter firm based in Fort Lauderdale, and had previously been featured in local news coverage as a teenager learning to fly, with lessons beginning in 2020 and additional instruction from her father. A Texas family was also identified among the victims in a family statement reported by CNN: Adam Robinson, Helen Sharp, and their two children, Emma and Charlie Robinson. The National Transportation Safety Board said the nine people on board comprised two crew members and seven passengers, and the Palm Beach County medical examiner's office said on Monday it was working to officially release the identities of all those killed. Witness accounts and early reports described the jet descending at an extreme rate before impact, with CNN reporting that it was falling at about 450 feet per second as it nosedived into the ground. The force of the crash left a large crater and a trail of wreckage, and officials said the scale of the destruction would make the investigation unusually difficult. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation with support from the Federal Aviation Administration, said its investigators faced significant challenges in piecing together what happened. Board member Thomas Chapman told a news conference on Monday that all nine people aboard had died, and investigators are examining air traffic control audio and flight data, which the BBC has also reconstructed to trace the aircraft's final moments. What caused the jet to fall from the sky remains unknown, and no cause has been announced by investigators. Aviation inquiries of this kind typically examine the aircraft's maintenance history, the crew's actions, weather conditions and any mechanical evidence recovered from the wreckage, but officials have not pointed to any single factor in the early stages of this case. For the families, the identifications have turned a shocking crash into a series of personal losses. Filgueiras was described by relatives as a determined young aviator who had followed her dream of flying from her school years, while the Robinson family statement marked the loss of two parents and their two young children on a journey that had been meant to end in the Bahamas. The investigation will now move into a longer phase of evidence gathering, with the wreckage examined, data analysed and a preliminary report expected in the coming weeks, while a final determination of cause could take far longer. Until then, the crash stands as one of the deadliest private jet accidents in Florida in recent years, and a reminder of how quickly a routine charter flight can end in tragedy.Advertisement · Google AdSense 728×90 / 320×100
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