Father Who Taught His Daughter to Fly Faces Unimaginable Loss After 20-Year-Old Co-Pilot Dies in Learjet Disaster

A father who introduced his daughter to the world of aviation is mourning an unimaginable loss after the 20-year-old co-pilot died alongside eight others when their private jet crashed in Florida.

Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras was just 20 when the Learjet 60 she was working aboard plunged into a residential area of Palm Beach County on November 1, killing everyone on board.

Her father, Allan Filgueiras, was a recreational pilot who helped teach Nathalia how to fly. Her passion for aviation began when she was still a child, and by the age of 12 she had already told her family that she wanted to become a pilot.

She began taking flying lessons as a teenager and earned her pilot’s license in 2023, at just 17 years old, before she had even obtained her driver’s license.

In an earlier television interview, Nathalia joked about the unusual achievement, saying she liked to tell people that although she could not drive, she could fly.

Her mother, Camila Corteleti, said her daughter loved the freedom of being in the air.

“She loved the freedom,” Corteleti told The New York Times. “It was completely different seeing the world from the top.”

But behind her daughter’s ambition, her mother carried a deep fear that flying would eventually take Nathalia away from her.

Speaking after the tragedy, Corteleti recalled that she had always worried about the dangers of her daughter’s chosen career. She wanted Nathalia to pursue her dream, but feared that one day an aircraft would be the reason she lost her.

Despite her young age, Nathalia had accumulated more than 1,300 flight hours and was working for Upper Jets, a private charter company based in Fort Lauderdale.

She was serving as co-pilot alongside 55-year-old Captain Jeff Gregory when their Learjet departed Austin, Texas, bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

The aircraft was flying at approximately 35,000 feet when the crew reported accumulating ice and moderate turbulence. The pilots requested permission to climb to a higher altitude, but the situation deteriorated rapidly.

Air traffic control recordings captured Nathalia reporting a steep descent and declaring an emergency. She warned controllers that the aircraft was descending at an alarming rate and that it had entered an overspeed condition.

The final radio transmissions revealed the terrifying struggle inside the cockpit as the crew attempted to deal with the emergency.

The Learjet ultimately crashed near Greenacres, Florida, creating a massive fireball and leaving a crater at the impact site. All nine people aboard were killed.

The other victims included a Texas technology entrepreneur, his wife, their two young children, their nanny and two family friends.

Nathalia’s family has remembered her as a hardworking, responsible young woman whose greatest passion was flying. Her sister also said that learning to fly from their father had been a defining part of her life.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are examining the aircraft’s final moments, including the reported icing, turbulence and evidence that parts of the jet may have separated before impact. No official cause has been established.

For her family, the tragedy is especially painful because aviation was not simply Nathalia’s profession. It was a dream she had pursued since childhood, encouraged by the father who first taught her to take to the skies.

Source:  DAILYMAIL