20-Year-Old Co-Pilot Identified in Florida Learjet Crash That Killed All Nine Aboard
A 20-year-old co-pilot was among the nine people killed when a private Learjet 60 nosedived into a Palm Beach County neighborhood on Sunday afternoon, striking the ground at extreme speed after the crew reported icing and turbulence.
Nathalia Filgueiras, of Boca Raton, earned her private pilot license at 17 while still in high school at West Boca Raton High School—before she had a driver’s license. Her family says she had logged more than 1,300 flight hours and had worked for roughly nine months as a commercial pilot for Upper Jets, a Fort Lauderdale-based charter company. She was co-piloting the 2004 Bombardier Learjet, registration N722BD, on a flight from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.
Roughly ten minutes before impact, Filgueiras texted her boyfriend: “I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice.” Air traffic control recordings captured the crew reporting moderate turbulence, ice buildup, and precipitation while cruising near 35,000 feet in outside temperatures around minus 47 degrees Celsius. They requested a climb. Moments later the situation collapsed.
The pilots declared an emergency, reported a descent rate of 10,000 feet per minute, then an overspeed condition at 20,000 feet per minute. Flight data showed the jet dropping at rates exceeding 30,000 feet per minute before slamming nearly vertically into the ground near Military Trail and 10th Avenue North in the Greenacres area around 12:50 p.m., leaving a crater, scattering debris, and erupting into a fireball. No one on the ground was injured. Approximately 600 nearby residents were evacuated.
Filgueiras’ mother, Camila Corteleti, told the New York Post she had long feared this outcome. “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,” she said. “I knew that a plane was gonna take her away from me. I always knew it, but I was so proud of her.” Filgueiras had previously posted on social media about flying with another pilot under 21 who held commercial, multi-engine, instrument, and instructor ratings.
The remaining eight people aboard have not yet been publicly identified. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, with the FAA assisting. The aircraft was registered to a Delaware corporation. Weather in the area was stormy, with heavy rain and conditions consistent with icing at altitude.
The rapid, uncontrolled descent after the ice and turbulence reports raises basic questions about weather decision-making, aircraft handling in those conditions, and the experience level of the crew on a high-performance business jet. Those answers will come from the investigation.