Tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, who was killed when the business jet carrying his family and his children’s nanny crashed on Sunday, had previously written about the importance of making time for loved ones.
Robinson, 45, founder of tech startup Retention, was aboard a twin-engine Learjet 60 with his wife, Helen Sharp, 40, and their children, Emma, four, and Charlie, two, when the aircraft crashed in a fireball near West Palm Beach, Florida.
The family was flying from their home in Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas with their nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina, and another couple, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr. All nine people on board, including the two pilots, died in the crash.
As relatives and friends mourn the family’s deaths, a post Robinson shared in April has resurfaced. In it, he reflected on his earlier career on Wall Street and the choice to put family time ahead of long working hours.
“People my age now (45) said they were working 70, 80, 90 hours a week for their families… but all their families actually wanted was their presence,” he wrote.
“They didn’t understand why their families resented how much they worked when they lived in a nice house and their kids went to private schools.”
“I decided early in my startup journey that wasn’t going to be me,” Robinson wrote.
He said he and his Retention co-founders adopted a policy of “quitting” at 5 or 5.30pm. They would close their laptops, stop talking about work and return home to their families.
Adam Robinson, 45, and his wife Helen Sharp, 40, were flying with their children Emma, four, and Charlie, two, aboard a Learjet 60 when it crashed in Florida on Sunday
Disturbing dashcam footage shows the Learjet 60 plunging nose-first into an intersection before bursting into flames
Robinson said he would sometimes finish work even earlier if he had plans with his children.
“My family life gives me energy for my work. My work gives me energy for my family life,” he wrote.
The family, their friends and the children’s nanny were traveling to the Bahamas to celebrate Robinson’s birthday, according to TMZ reports.
The business jet was flying east over Florida at 35,000 feet when co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras warned air traffic controllers that the aircraft was descending.
“Descending 20,000ft per minute… we’re going to crash into the ground,” the co-pilot said. In the background, pilot Jeff Gregory, 55, could be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
Cockpit audio captured Filgueiras trying to explain the emergency to air traffic control during the final moments before the Learjet 60 went down.
She reported that the aircraft had banked 60 degrees, indicating it was flying on its side, while also relaying the rapidly changing altitude.
The Daily Mail has decided not to publish the final seconds of the recording because the audio is extremely distressing.
Robinson previously wrote on social media that spending time with his family was a priority at his startup. Source: Helen Robinson / Facebook
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Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, pictured, were also killed in the Learjet crash
The family’s nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina (pictured), was also on board
Filgueiras had also been messaging her fellow pilot boyfriend about facing heavy weather in the minutes before the plane crashed.
Her family told the New York Post that before the crash, Filgueiras texted her boyfriend Justin: ‘I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice.’
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) now say they believe severe weather played a ‘significant factor’ in the disaster and that part of the jet appeared to have broken off before the crash – which occurred just eight miles from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club.
The president and Air Force One took off from Palm Beach International Airport just an hour before the crash landing as Trump tried to rally support for Republicans ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.
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.
Co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras was heard warning air traffic control of the imminent disaster moments before the jet crash landed
The impact left a massive crater in the middle of the road, damaging nearby infrastructure
Some aviation experts now believe the plane may have fallen foul of ‘coffin corner’ while trying to climb above two storm systems, known as cells.
Coffin corner is a phenomenon whereby the jet’s minimum safe speed and maximum safe speed converge into a very narrow range at high altitude, making it extremely difficult to fly safely.
If the plane goes too slow or fast it will stall and quickly become uncontrollable.
As the NTSB now continues to investigate what caused the plane to fall out of the sky, the victims’ families remembered Adam and Helen as ‘devoted parents’ and that their children ‘were the light of their lives.’
‘Helen and Adam were the love affair that will last forever,’ the families said in a joint statement. ‘Their warmth, generosity and gift for making people feel welcome touched so many lives. Their loss will be felt deeply by all those who loved them and who they loved in return.’
The statement continued: ‘Charmi and Rachel were full of joy and adventure. They loved their people fiercely, fully and without hesitation. From the moment they met, they were all in on each other and the life they were building. They are deeply loved, and we will miss them endlessly.
‘Anita Maria cared for Emma and Charlie with tenderness and devotion, and she was truly part of the family. She showed us a legacy of unconditional love and devotion.’
‘On behalf of friends and family, it is with a heavy heart that we share that our dearest Helen was taken from us too soon,’ read a statement from her family.
‘To know Helen was to love her. The number of people grieving Helen and Adam is a testament to how many people were lucky enough to have them in their lives.’