Father of 20-year-old co-pilot killed in Florida plane crash: ‘I wanted to be by her side’

All nine people aboard a Learjet 60 traveling in South Florida were killed when the aircraft crashed and caught fire along a busy roadway near Greenacres, in Palm Beach County, after departing Austin, Texas and en route to the Bahamas. The incident is being described in initial reports as a fatal aviation event with a broad debris field and a post-crash fire, complicating early response and recovery efforts. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were noted as reviewing evidence and considering lines of inquiry, including loss of control or possible structural breakup, though no final determination had been announced at the time of reporting.

The central figure publicly identified across outlets is Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, age 20, who was serving as the co-pilot at the time of the crash. Multiple reports confirm her as part of the flight crew and cite her as one of the nine fatalities. The other crew member on board, the captain, was named as Jeffrey Gregory. In addition to the two pilots, the deceased included seven passengers identified in various outlets as part of families and friends traveling together, with precise names and relationships enumerated differently by outlets but consistently described as nine total fatalities.

Emergency responders were immediately mobilized to the Greenacres crash site, near Palm Beach International Airport, where responders encountered a wide debris field and a post-crash fire. Video and on-scene reporting described tail elevator debris found miles from the main impact site, underscoring the scale of the impact and the challenges facing early recovery teams. Investigators and authorities conducted the initial scene assessment as part of the ongoing investigation into the possible causes and sequence of events leading to the fire and destruction.

The flight’s origin is reported by CBS News and affiliates as Austin, Texas, with the jet en route toward the Bahamas when it went down. The crash occurred along a roadway in Palm Beach County, creating a dispersal of debris and a challenging search and investigation environment for local authorities and federal investigators. The broader context provided by multiple outlets mentions a Learjet 60 and situates the incident within the same day’s Florida aviation tragedies being covered by several outlets, though the final cause remained undetermined in the material provided.

In addition to the single-entity Learjet crash, other Florida aviation incidents were reported by the same pool of outlets in the same day, including a separate helicopter crash in Biscayne Bay off Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne. The helicopter, identified as a Robinson R44 II, involved a flight with at least three people aboard, including one fatality and two injuries, with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office coordinating the response and investigation. This second incident is described as a water landing with wreckage recovered near the Crandon Boulevard area, and investigators were noted as continuing to review information with no official cause yet determined.

WPBF reports on a brief public news conference featuring Nathalia Filgueiras’ family and their legal representatives, highlighting that the investigation remains ongoing as authorities pursue answers about the tragedy. The family’s representatives indicated that they would await the government’s investigative findings and consult experts before offering further commentary, underscoring the ongoing nature of the inquiry and the emotional toll on relatives.

Fox News provides the central narrative of Nathalia Filgueiras’ final communications, noting Allan Filgueiras (Nathalia’s father) has replayed her last radio transmissions and described her as the aircraft’s co-pilot. The report emphasizes the moment of final contact with air traffic control as the plane descended, but does not supply details about the crash site, the exact flight plan, or the aircraft model beyond the Learjet designation in corroborating outlets. The material does not specify causes, injuries beyond those aboard, or the current status of the investigation.

CBS News and NBC 6 South Florida, with corroboration from PBS materials cited in coverage, provide a corroborated roster of the flight’s occupants, listing Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras and Jeffrey Gregory as crew and seven named passengers, including family members and a nanny, with nine fatalities confirmed across sources. These outlets describe a broad debris field and a post-crash fire near a Palm Beach County roadway, with tail debris reported miles from the main site, reinforcing the narrative of a high-impact event and the scale of destruction. Investigators were described as considering loss of control or structural breakup as possible lines of inquiry, though no final cause had been established in the early reporting.

KTVN’s coverage echoes the father-focused angle, noting that the 20-year-old co-pilot’s father described listening to her final radio transmissions, with a focus on the personal and emotional dimension of the tragedy. The reports caution that further specifics about the aircraft’s exact make, the flight path, or the precise Florida location were not provided in the material, and that the investigation was ongoing. A parallel emphasis across sources is the human impact, with families awaiting official findings and the broader aviation community processing the losses.

The overarching narrative across the outlets confirms nine fatalities on the Learjet 60 near Greenacres, with Nathalia Filgueiras and Jeffrey Gregory identified as crew and seven additional passengers named in multiple reports. While some outlets provide more granular family details, others emphasize the ongoing investigation and the lack of a final cause at the time of reporting. The separate Biscayne Bay helicopter incident adds a second tragedy to the Florida aviation-breaking coverage, illustrating how multiple incidents were being reported concurrently by the same news ecosystem.