The Learjet co-pilot heard pleading for help before a fiery Florida crash has been identified as Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, a 20-year-old commercial pilot who earned her private pilot’s license while she was still attending high school, as reported by The New York Post.

Filgueiras’s mother, Camila, and stepfather confirmed her identity to The Post. She was serving as co-pilot aboard a Learjet 60 traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when the aircraft crashed Sunday afternoon in Palm Beach County.

The jet entered a steep nosedive and plummeted at more than 20,000 feet per minute before striking the ground. Filgueiras and the other eight people aboard the aircraft died in the crash.

The Florida Learjet crash on the road killing all 9 onboard. White sedan was lucky.

A private Learjet 60 plane crash in Palm Beach County, Florida reached a vertical descent speed exceeding 32,000 feet per minute (roughly 350 to 371 mph / 560 to 597 km/h) just before impact. The plane missed the power line, else it would have hurt quite a few more people on the ground. Hardly any debris, looks like the plane almost vapourised on impact. — Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) November 2, 2026

Camila said her daughter would have turned 21 in January and had been working as a commercial pilot for nine months. The young aviator had pursued flying from an early age and turned that ambition into a career.

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“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,” Camila said from her Palm Beach County home.

The grieving mother said she had long feared that aviation could separate her from her daughter. Yet she remained proud that Filgueiras had been living the life she wanted.

“I knew that a plane was gonna take her away from me. I always knew it but I was so proud of her. I know she was living her dream,” Camila said.

Camila’s husband, Thiago Corteleti, 44, said Filgueiras had accumulated 1,300 hours of flying experience. He also said she sent a text message to her boyfriend, Justin, approximately 10 minutes before the jet crashed.

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“She just said, ‘I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice,'” Corteleti said.

Filgueiras grew up in Palm Beach County and previously attracted local media attention after obtaining her private pilot’s license at 17 in October 2023. She accomplished that milestone before she had even received her driver’s license.

“I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly,'” she told CBS12 during an interview at the time.

Filgueiras, then a senior at West Boca Raton High School, said she began taking pilot lessons in 2020. Her father, who had learned to fly for fun in 2018, also helped teach her.

The middle of three sisters, Filgueiras developed her desire to become a pilot after her father took her flying in his small Beechcraft Bonanza. Her mother recalled the moment Filgueiras came home and announced her plan.

“One day after flying with him, she came home, and we were in our room, and she walked in, and she said, ‘I’m gonna be a pilot,’ and I said, ‘No, you won’t,” Camila said through tears.

The School District of Palm Beach County’s Aviation Academy paid for Filgueiras’s pilot’s license after introducing the program in 2023. Her family also frequently posted on social media about flying together in private jets.

Filgueiras later graduated from American Flyers, a flying school based in Addison, Texas, that also has a branch in Pompano Beach, Florida. She began working as an instructor at another school in Fort Lauderdale after receiving her license, then secured another pilot position.

Her family said Filgueiras hoped eventually to become a commercial airline pilot but remained too young to apply for a position with American Airlines. A recent social media post showed Filgueiras flying alongside her boyfriend.

“How often do you see 2 pilots under 21 with a commercial, multi-engine, instrument, CFI/CFI-I [Certified Flight Instructor/Certified Flight Instructor – Instrument],” she wrote over the video.

Camila said employers quickly recognized her daughter’s talent and dedication to aviation. “Everybody was so impressed with her. They hired her because they knew how good she was and how much she loved it,” she said.

“I know if she could pick a way to go, this would be her way to go, but I didn’t want it to be so soon,” Camila added.

 

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Authorities had not yet identified the other eight people aboard the Learjet who died. Officials were expected to hold a press conference later Monday and provide further details about the deadly crash.

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