Father Of Doomed Learjet's 20-Year-Old Co-Pilot Breaks Silence On Her Final Mayday

The co-pilot of the Learjet that crashed into a Greenacres, Florida, neighborhood on Sunday was 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras. Her father, Allan Filgueiras, confirmed her identity to NBC Miami. Her sister, Giulia, said the family is from Brazil, that Nathalia learned to fly from their father, who is also a pilot, and that flying was her greatest passion, NBC reported.

On Friday, Allan Filgueiras spoke publicly for the first time. He told reporters he has played the air traffic control recording of his daughter's last words again and again, looking for any clue to what brought the jet down - and that what he heard instead was his daughter fighting to keep control of the aircraft to the very end, NBC News reported.

"She made me so proud," he said. "She showed me what it is to be a hero." The family's attorney, Stuart Grossman, said the point of the news conference was to protect her reputation as well as her memory.

Filgueiras earned her pilot's license in 2023 when she was 17, while a senior at West Boca Raton Community High School. Her license rated her to fly the jet but not to be in command of the flight, according to the same report. Her mother, Camila Corteleti, told the New York Times that she had logged more than 1,300 flight hours and worked for Upper Jets, a Fort Lauderdale private charter company, the Times reported.

Grossman said her father began taking her flying when she was 12. "When we were flying together, I used to instruct her. And then, she became my instructor," Allan Filgueiras said. Grossman acknowledged that many people will be surprised a 20-year-old was co-piloting a private jet. "But wait until you see her hours, and what the government proves about her capabilities," he said.

Her stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, told the New York Post she texted her boyfriend about 10 minutes before the crash: "I've got turbulence, I've got ice," the Associated Press reported. In the last air traffic control transmissions, the crew reported ice buildup and severe turbulence, then said: "We're going to crash into the ground." The AP also reports the call ended with "We're out of time!"

The jet, a Learjet 60 flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas with nine people aboard, had been at 35,000 feet when the crew reported problems and declared an emergency as it lost altitude rapidly. NTSB member Tom Chapman said "We do have some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact," and that parts could be found "some distance away from the actual impact site."

As we noted earlier, investigators have since found most of the left elevator miles from the crater, and the final minutes were captured in chilling air traffic control audio. Investigators have not said who was at the controls; the captain, Jeff Gregory, was 55.

The NTSB, which Grossman said has sent 20 investigators to South Florida, said Thursday it had recovered parts of one of the jet's engines and was still excavating the crater. The family is not pointing fingers yet. "We're not making allegations against anybody at this time," Grossman said, adding that the family will wait for the government's findings and then have its own experts review them.

Thinking back to Sunday's radio call, Allan Filgueiras said he wishes he could have been on the plane beside her to help. "It feels like someone is tearing the heart right out of my chest," he said, adding that he will "find a way to make her proud."