The co-pilot of a Learjet crash that killed all nine people aboard was a 20-year-old woman, while cockpit audio captured the pilot reciting the Lord’s Prayer during the aircraft’s final moments.
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, was co-piloting the Learjet 60 on Sunday when it went down near West Palm Beach.
Filgueiras’ family told The New York Post that she was at the aircraft’s controls when the jet plummeted to the ground.
A Palm Beach County native, Filgueiras had previously appeared in a local media report after earning her pilot’s license in 2023, when she was 17.
Speaking to CBS12 at the time, she said: “I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly.’”
Her mother, Camila, frequently shared photographs of Filgueiras and her siblings traveling on private jets. Her father, Allan, also held a pilot’s license.
Camila told The New York Times: “She loved the freedom. It was completely different seeing the world from the top.”
In air traffic control audio released after Sunday’s crash in West Palm Beach, Florida, the unidentified male pilot could be heard saying, “who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
As he prayed, Filgueiras appeared to report that the Learjet 60 had banked 60 degrees—an indication that the aircraft was flying nearly on its side.
Shortly afterward, the jet crashed in a fireball beside a roadway, killing everyone on board.
Authorities have not yet released the identities of the other passengers and crew. Officials were expected to provide additional details at a press conference later Monday.
Early speculation has focused on severe weather as a possible factor. The $2 million business jet was flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it crashed.
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, was piloting the Learjet 60 when it crashed near West Palm Beach on Sunday
Experts have speculated that the $2 million jet may have been brought down by a phenomenon known as coffin corner
Federal authorities are investigating to determine what caused the crash
Some aviation experts believe the aircraft may have encountered “coffin corner” while attempting to climb above two storm systems, or cells.
Coffin corner occurs at high altitude when a jet’s minimum safe speed and maximum safe speed converge, leaving pilots with an extremely narrow margin in which to operate safely.
If the aircraft slows too much or accelerates beyond the safe range, it can stall and rapidly become uncontrollable.
Former pilot Martin Varsavsky, who now runs an artificial intelligence firm, wrote on X that dangerous weather may have contributed to the fatal incident.
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“The radars clearly showed those cells; in light jets, the rule is to deviate with a good margin, not to fly through them—this could be an error by the woman who was piloting,” he said.
‘What storms do by changing the outside temperature is that airplanes can no longer stay aloft at the same speed. It’s called the coffin corner. Or they become very difficult to keep under control.’
Filgueiras grew up in Palm Beach County and previously featured in a local media report after first getting her pilot license in 2023 at the age of 17
The impact left a massive crater in the middle of the road, damaging nearby infrastructure
The cause of the crash, which happened eight miles from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club, remains unclear. The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation, Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed on Sunday.
The air traffic controllers in nearby Miami had given pilots permission to ‘deviate left and right’ due to ‘moderate precipitation… to the southeast’ that they described as ‘pretty nasty’ as the twin-engine business jet approached the area.
The controllers were then heard describing ‘moderate turbulence’ before Filgueiras’s tone swiftly became panicked as she realized the plane was in trouble.
She said: ‘Seven two two bravo delta, we’re descending 8,000… mayday mayday… we’re descending 10,000ft per minute.’
Seconds later, she screamed: ‘Declaring emergency, declaring emergency, we are in an overspeed condition.’
Her voice grew even more panicked as she said: ‘Descending 20,000ft per minute… we’re going to crash into the ground.’
‘I’m here with you, talk to me,’ the air traffic controller said in an attempt to calm the situation.
Filgueiras said: ‘We are descending 22,000ft, and we are banking 60 degrees.’ ‘We’re out of time,’ Filgueiras then screamed in her final transmission.
The cause of the crash, which happened eight miles from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club, remains unclear
Officials do not believe the road where the plane crashed will be open for another month
The Daily Mail has chosen not to publish the final seconds of audio which are extremely distressing.
Rumors went viral on social media that rockstar Lenny Kravitz was onboard the aircraft, with his representative having to confirm that he was not.
Weather conditions in the West Palm Beach area on Sunday afternoon were poor, overcast with rain and lightning in the area and winds from the east at 15 mph, gusting to near 25 mph. The National Weather Service in Miami said visibility was seven miles.
The flight had set off from Austin, Texas, bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas before its path abruptly ended just near West Palm Beach, according to flight data.
The impact left debris scattered across a significant distance and a massive crater in the road, but authorities said nobody on the ground was injured or killed in the crash.