Two-time Pro Bowl running back Joe Mixon was left reeling after discovering that he had flown on the same Learjet—and with the same two pilots—just weeks before the aircraft crashed in Florida on Sunday.
Mixon, 30, said he was “absolutely devastated” by the crash, which claimed nine lives, in an emotional tribute posted on X Tuesday.
“I flew on that exact aircraft last month with those same two pilots,” the former Cincinnati Bengal wrote. “They were incredible professionals and genuinely wonderful people.”
Mixon specifically remembered 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, saying her story had deeply affected him.
“Hearing the young woman’s story and learning about the bright future she had ahead of her makes it even more heartbreaking that her life was cut so short,” he wrote.
Mixon offered prayers to the families of all those aboard, describing the crash as a “tragic reminder of how fragile life is.”
“Love on your loved ones while you can, because you never know what tomorrow may bring,” he wrote at the end of his tribute.
Filgueiras was co-piloting the Learjet 60 with 55-year-old pilot Jeff Gregory during a flight from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas.
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The young aviator, who grew up in Palm Beach County, made local headlines in October 2023 after earning her private pilot’s license at 17, while still in high school and before she had obtained a driver’s license.
Filgueiras had been flying commercially for nine months and accumulated 1,300 hours in the air before her death, her grieving family told The Post.
The pilots had requested an ascent to about 37,000 feet to rise above severe weather. They reported icing and turbulence before the jet entered a steep nosedive, descending at more than 20,000 feet per minute.
The aircraft eventually crashed into a mobile home park in Palm Beach County, bringing down power lines and carving a massive crater into the ground.
Air traffic control audio captured Filgueiras screaming as she contacted a controller moments before the crash. Gregory could be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer during the final seconds.
Just 10 minutes before the crash, Filgueiras had also texted her boyfriend, Justin, to say the aircraft had encountered turbulence and was dealing with icing.
The victims included multimillionaire technology executive Adam Robinson, 44; his wife, Helen Sharp; and their two young children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, Robinson’s brother confirmed Monday.
Family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, along with the family’s nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina, also died in the crash.
Federal investigators have not yet determined why the jet plummeted. Authorities said Monday that it was flying through temperatures of minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
The aircraft began breaking apart before impact, scattering debris across a half-mile radius, the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference.
Investigators haven’t determined whether the plane had a cockpit voice recorder — or whether the device survived the crash.