A 20-year-old co-pilot sent a short message to her boyfriend, also a licensed pilot, roughly ten minutes before the private jet she was flying in dropped out of the sky and exploded in a residential Florida neighborhood. The message was calm. The ending was not. All nine people on board died, and federal investigators are now trying to piece together how a routine flight from Texas to the Bahamas turned into one of the year’s deadliest aviation disasters.
Who Was Nathalia Filgueiras
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras was a 20-year-old aviator from Boca Raton, Florida. She earned her private pilot’s license at 17, while still a senior at West Boca Raton High School, and had logged more than 1,300 hours of flight time by the time of the crash, according to her mother, Camila Corteleti (NYT).
Filgueiras worked for Upper Jets, a private charter firm based in Fort Lauderdale. She had been with the company for about nine months, her family said. The Palm Beach County School District’s Aviation Academy helped pay for her pilot’s license after she joined the program in 2023.
She was co-pilot on a Learjet 60 that departed Austin, Texas, on Sunday, November 1, 2026, bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas. The flight carried a pilot, a co-pilot, and seven passengers.
In a 2023 interview with CBS12, Filgueiras spoke about getting her license before she even had a driver’s license. “I like being different than everyone,” she said. “Some people think that it’s weird that I can fly planes, but I can’t drive a car.”
The Six Words That Came Before the Silence
Filgueiras texted her boyfriend, identified by her family as Justin, about ten minutes before the crash. Justin is also a licensed pilot. Her stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, shared the exact words with the New York Post (NY Post).
“She just said, ‘I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice.’”
The message was sent around 12:40 p.m., according to the family. The crash happened at approximately 12:50 p.m. in Palm Beach County.
The text was not a distress signal. It was a routine update between two pilots who understood weather and aircraft systems. Ice and turbulence are common in aviation. Pilots train for them. The message only became chilling after the plane went down.
Filgueiras and Justin had both earned their licenses at a young age. In a social media post, she once wrote: “How often do you see 2 pilots under 21 with a commercial, multi-engine, instrument, CFI/CFI-I.”
What the Cockpit Audio Revealed
Air traffic control recordings captured the final moments inside the cockpit. The crew first reported moderate turbulence and ice at around 35,000 feet. They asked to climb to 37,000 feet to get above the weather.
Less than 30 seconds later, the plane began to descend. The crew declared a mayday.
“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute. We are going to crash into the ground.” (BBC)
About 35 seconds after the mayday call, the last words from the cockpit were: “We’re out of time.”
The pilot, Jeff Gregory, 55, could be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer as the aircraft fell. Gregory was an experienced aviator who had briefly worked for East Coast Jets in 2016 and 2017, according to a company spokesperson.
The Learjet 60 hit the ground near Military Trail and 10th Avenue North in the Greenacres area of Palm Beach County. It created a fiery crater in the middle of a roadway. Debris scattered across sports fields, businesses, and homes.
The Nine People Who Died
All nine people on board were killed. The victims included a Texas tech entrepreneur, his wife, their two young children, a nanny, two family friends, and the two pilots.
- Adam Robinson, 45, founder and CEO of RB2B, Retention.com, and MoltSets. He previously worked at Lehman Brothers and Barclays.
- Helen Sharp, 40, Robinson’s wife, who worked in public relations and had recently opened a ceramics studio.
- Emma Robinson, 4, and Charlie Robinson, 2, the couple’s children.
- Anita Maria Cetina, the children’s nanny.
- Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, friends of the family.
- Jeff Gregory, 55, the pilot.
- Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, the co-pilot.
A joint statement from the families described Robinson and Sharp as “devoted parents” and said their children were “the light of their lives.” The statement added: “Helen and Adam were the love affair that will last forever.”
One person on the ground, a driver near the crash site, sustained a leg injury from debris. No one else on the ground was hurt.
What Investigators Found at the Crash Site
The National Transportation Safety Board held a press conference on Monday, November 2. Board member Tom Chapman confirmed that evidence suggests the aircraft may have broken apart before impact.
“We do have some evidence that there was some breakup of the aircraft before impact.” (AP)
Debris was found scattered over a radius of nearly half a mile. The crater was partially filled with water, which slowed the recovery of wreckage.
The plane had climbed to about 37,000 feet to avoid foul weather. Temperatures at that altitude were around -50 degrees Fahrenheit. The crew reported picking up ice and hitting heavy turbulence.
The aircraft was a Bombardier Learjet 60 that went into service in 2004 and was renovated in 2018. It was flown by Aurora Aviation, operating as Upper Jets.
Why the NTSB Is Focusing on Weather and Ice
Chapman said weather conditions are a “major focus” of the investigation. The NTSB is working with the Federal Aviation Administration, representatives from Learjet, meteorologists, and air traffic control experts.
The plane’s descent rate increased from about 10,000 feet per minute to 22,000 feet per minute before impact. A jet can break apart in midair at such extreme rates of descent, subjecting the aircraft to forces it was not built to handle.
Maintenance records show a cockpit voice recorder had been installed on the aircraft at some point. The NTSB does not yet know whether it was still on the plane at the time of the crash, or whether it can be recovered from the crater.
Recovering the wreckage will be a “daunting challenge,” said NTSB air safety investigator Timothy Monville.
A Young Pilot Who Chased the Sky
Filgueiras’s mother, Camila Corteleti, told the New York Times that her daughter had been passionate about flying since childhood. She used to go to Boca Raton Airport to watch planes take off and land. At about age 12, she announced she wanted to be a pilot.
“She loved the freedom. It was completely different seeing the world from the top.”
Corteleti also told the New York Post that she always knew flying would eventually take her daughter away from her.
“I wanted her to live her dream, but I knew that her dream was going to be the thing that would take her away from me. I knew that a plane was gonna take her away from me. I always knew it, but I was so proud of her.”
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, an experienced pilot with more than 8,000 flight hours, spoke out on Monday after conspiracy theories and comments questioning Filgueiras’s experience spread across social media. Isaacman defended the 20-year-old co-pilot.
Filgueiras’s stepfather said she had accumulated around 1,300 hours of flying experience before the crash.
What Comes Next for the Investigation
The NTSB said determining the probable cause of the crash will be a “lengthy investigatory process.” The agency is still working to identify all nine victims through genetic analysis. Officials have not yet determined who was at the controls when the plane began to fall.
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Dashcam footage from a nearby vehicle captured the moment the jet came down. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described it at a Sunday news conference.
“It’s like a missile coming down, and a massive explosion, debris going everywhere.”
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