Young co‑pilot, 20, named among nine dead in Florida Learjet crash
A 20‑year‑old co‑pilot was identified as one of the victims of a Learjet that crashed in Palm Beach County during a thunderstorm.
Family members on Monday identified a young Florida pilot as one of nine victims of a plane crash in Palm Beach County that occurred during a heavy thunderstorm.
Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, was co‑pilot of the private Learjet 60 en route from Austin‑Bergstrom International Airport in Texas to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas on Sunday when it suddenly plummeted out of the sky, killing all onboard, her mother told the New York Times.
Later on Monday, the family of the passengers posted a statement on Facebook naming the victims and paying tribute to them.
The statement listed Adam Robinson, 45, a Texas‑based technology entrepreneur; his wife Helen Sharp, 40; and their children, Emma, four, and Charlie, two. Close family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr were also killed, along with Anita Maria Cetina, the children’s nanny.
The pilot in charge of the Learjet was identified by TMZ and other media outlets on Monday as Jeff Gregory, 55, an experienced aviator from Pennsylvania.
The plane crashed at midday on Sunday, exploding on impact, leaving a giant crater in the ground, and scattering debris all around the crash site near a mobile home park in the city of Greenacres.
At a briefing on Monday, Tom Chapman, head of a team of about 20 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) personnel in West Palm Beach, said conditions in South Florida on Sunday were “pretty crazy”, and that the weather would be “a major focus” of the investigation.
“You all saw what the weather was like here at the surface. What we have to determine is what the weather conditions were like at altitude,” he said.
Filgueiras’s mother, Camila Corteleti, told the Times her daughter worked for Upper Jets, a private charter firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which owned the aircraft, and that she had been passionate about flying since childhood.
“She loved the freedom. It was completely different seeing the world from the top,” Corteleti said, adding that her daughter enjoyed plane spotting at local airports as a young girl.
Filgueiras graduated high school in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2024, having already obtained her private pilot’s license at the age of 17, according to the Palm Beach CBS affiliate 12 News.
Aurora Aviation, which operated the aircraft under its trading name of Upper Jets, did not respond to a request for comment.
Robinson was the founder of several technology companies, and his wife owned a public relations firm, according to relatives.
“Adam and Helen were devoted parents, and Emma and Charlie were the light of their lives,” the statement said.
The investigation will continue as officials examine how the severe weather may have contributed to the tragedy.
