The co-pilot of the Learjet heard on the horrific air traffic control audio before crashing in a fiery explosion in Palm Beach County has been identified as 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, who obtained her pilot license while still in high school.

WATCH: Dashcam Captures Terrifying Moment Learjet Plunges Into Palm Beach Neighborhood

Filgueiras’s mother, Camila, and her stepfather confirmed to the New York Post that she was the co-pilot of the Learjet 60 flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas.

According to her mother, Filgueiras had been working as a commercial pilot for nine months.

More from the New York Post:

Camila’s husband, Thiago Corteleti, 44, told The Post that Filgueiras had 1,300 hours of flying experience.

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She texted her boyfriend, Justin, just 10 minutes before the plane crashed, he said.

“She just said, ‘I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice,'” Corteleti said.

The young aviator, who grew up in Palm Beach County, was previously featured in local media when she got her private pilot’s license at just 17 back in October 2023 — before she even had her driver’s license.

“I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly,'” she told CBS12 in an interview at the time.

The West Boca Raton High School senior explained that she began pilot lessons in 2020, but was also taught by her dad, who learned flying for fun in 2018.

The middle of three sisters, Filgueiras dreamed of becoming a pilot from a young age after being taken out in her father’s small Beechcraft Bonanza.

“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,” Camila said through tears.

“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,'” she said.

Her family often shared posts on social media of them flying in private jets together. The School District of Palm Beach County’s Aviation Academy paid for her pilot’s license after introducing the program that year, in 2023.

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Watch the 2023 feature in local media below:

The other eight victims of the crash have not been identified.

According to the Associated Press, the plane was heading east at 35,000 feet when the pilots reported turbulence, icing, and precipitation and requested to climb another 2,000 feet.

The plane then entered a steep dive, accelerating up to 30,000 feet per minute.

Air traffic control audio captured the distress calls moments before the crash.

Watch the crash below:

More from the Associated Press:

A pilot declared an emergency and issued distress calls. The plane banked sharply to the right before it smashed into the ground.

Minutes before the crash, the pilot reported ice accumulating on the jet and turbulence that was jolting it by as much as 700 feet (213 meters), according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net.

“We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” the pilot told controllers.

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But the situation rapidly deteriorated. After encountering precipitation and requesting to climb, the pilot declared an emergency as the aircraft began losing altitude at an alarming rate.

“We’re descending 8,000 – mayday, mayday - we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.

“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed, before delivering a devastating acknowledgment of what was about to happen. “We’re going to crash into the ground.”

Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the jet was a private aircraft. He could not immediately provide details about who was on the flight.

Steve Arroyo, an aviation safety expert, said icing and turbulence could have been factors in the crash and may have caused the plane to stall while it was cruising at 34,000 feet (10,363 meters).

There are many potential factors and the NTSB will consider all of them, including how the pilot responded to the icing and turbulence reported over the radio. But investigators won’t rule anything out at this early stage, he said.

 

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