One of the two pilots involved in the fatal Bombardier Aerospace Learjet 60 crash has been identified as 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, who reportedly received her pilot’s license while she was still attending high school.
As reported by The New York Post, Filgueiras’ identity was confirmed by her mother, Camila, and her stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, who said she was the co-pilot in the Learjet 60 that was en route to the Bahamas from Austin, Texas, when it crashed in Palm Beach County in South Florida on Sunday (Nov. 1).
Her mother added that Filgueiras would have turned 21 in January, and had earned her pilot license when she was still in high school at 17. At the time of the crash, she had been working as a commercial pilot for roughly nine months and had 1,300 hours of flying experience.
“I wanted her to live her dream, but I knew that her dream was going to be the thing that would take her away from me,” her mother told the Post. “I knew that a plane was gonna take her away from me. I always knew it but I was so proud of her. I know she was living her dream.” She also reportedly texted her boyfriend, Justin, ten minutes before the crash, telling him that her flight was facing ice and turbulence.
Her mother said her daughter started pilot lessons in 2020, and had received private training from her biological father, who also has a pilot’s license. “One day after flying with him, she came home, and we were in our room, and she walked in, and she said, ‘I’m gonna be a pilot’ and I said, ‘No, you won’t,’” her mother added. “Thiago looked at me, and said, ‘If that’s what she wants to be, she will be a pilot,’ and I was like, ‘No she won’t.’”
Her mother said that she hoped to become a commercial airline pilot, but she was too young to apply for a job with American Airlines. To receive an Airline Transport Pilot License, which is required to fly commercial airline passenger planes, you have to be at least 21 years old and have at least 1,500 hours of flying experience. “I know if she could pick a way to go, this would be her way to go, but I didn’t want it to be so soon,” he mother said.
On Sunday (Nov. 1), Filgueiras was the co-pilot of the Learjet 60 business jet that crashed in South Florida after a high-speed descent. All nine people on board were killed in the crash, which was captured on video by a nearby car with a dashcam. Filgueiras was working for Upper Jets, a private charter firm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The other eight people killed in the crash have yet to be identified.
