Mother of 20-Year-Old Co-Pilot Who Died in Florida Plane Crash Opens Up About the Childhood Dream Behind Her Daughter’s Final Flight

Nathalia Filgueiras was only 20, but she had already accomplished something she had dreamed of since childhood. Her promising career as a pilot ended in a Florida plane crash, leaving her family to reflect on the life she had built around flying.

Nathalia was among nine people killed when a private jet crashed in Greenacres, Palm Beach County, on Sunday, November 1, 2026.

The tragedy drew attention as air traffic control recordings revealed the crew’s final communications, and investigators began examining the circumstances surrounding the crash.

But years before that final flight, Nathalia had already made headlines for an unusual achievement that showed just how determined she was to become a pilot.

What Emerged About the Crash and Those on Board?

The Learjet 60 crashed in Greenacres, killing seven passengers and two pilots.

At the time, TMZ identified the captain as Jeff Gregory, 55, citing a family member. The outlet named his 20-year-old co-pilot as Nathalia Gadelha.

In a separate report, The New York Times (NYT) identified the co-pilot as Nathalia Filgueiras, citing her mother, Camila Corteleti.

At a news conference on Monday, November 2, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) discussed conditions the aircraft encountered before the crash.

According to TMZ, the crew reported icing and moderate turbulence before requesting permission to climb from 35,000 feet to 37,000 feet. The request came shortly before the pilots declared an emergency.

The crash also prompted an unrelated claim about another possible passenger.

As news spread Sunday night, rumors circulated that singer Lenny Kravitz had been aboard the aircraft. BocaNewsNow reported that Kravitz’s public relations representative, Carleen Donovan, denied the claims in an email.

“The reports are untrue and incorrect,” Donovan wrote.

What the Final Radio Calls Revealed

NBC News reported details from air traffic control recordings of the crew’s final communications.

About two minutes before the distress call, a woman, who was later identified as Nathalia, reported “light, clear ice,” describing it as “manageable.” She also reported “moderate turbulence.”

She later told air traffic control, “We’re picking up precipitation,” and requested permission to climb. The subsequent transmissions captured the aircraft’s rapid loss of altitude.

“Mayday, mayday. We’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” she said.

In a later transmission, she reported that the jet was descending at 20,000 feet per minute.

“We’re gonna crash into the ground 722 Bravo Delta,” she said.

NBC News reported that a scream followed the warning.

She Earned Her Pilot’s License Before She Could Drive

Three years before the crash, Nathalia drew attention for an achievement she had reached while still in high school.

In October 2023, CBS12 interviewed Nathalia, then 17, after she earned her private pilot’s license before obtaining her driver’s license. She was a senior at West Boca Raton High School and had begun ground school in 2020.

Her flight training was funded through the Palm Beach County School District’s Aviation Academy. During the interview, Nathalia joked about how she responded when people pointed out that she could not yet drive.

“I definitely do brag because people say, ‘oh you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘yeah but I can fly,'” she said.

She had logged 88 flight hours by the time of the interview and hoped to become a commercial airline pilot or fly private jets. “I like being different than everyone,” she said.

Her Sister and Longtime Friend Remembered Her

On Monday, November 2, Nathalia’s family gathered at their home near Boca Raton to watch the NTSB news conference.

Her sister, Giulia Filgueiras, spoke outside the residence about Nathalia’s determination to pursue aviation. “She was an amazing girl,” Giulia told Jacksonville.com. “She always followed her dream. She showed any girl could do what it takes.”

Giulia also expressed her belief about how her sister faced the emergency. “She was really brave and fought until the last moment she could,” she said.

Nathalia’s longtime friend, Nicole Tarantino, 21, visited the family that Monday after learning of the crash. The two had known each other since elementary school. “She was a beautiful person inside and out,” Nicole told NBC News.

Nicole also recalled how Nathalia’s interest in flying influenced her plans for college.

“When it came to picking colleges, she was looking at aviation schools,” Nicole said. “She was dedicated. She was only 20 years old doing all of that, and she excelled at it.”

Her Mother Recalled How Her Love of Flying Began

Nathalia’s mother, Camila Corteleti, shared more about her daughter’s early interest in aviation and the career she had built. Speaking to the NYT, Camila said Nathalia’s father was a recreational pilot who took her flying when she was young.

Nathalia also spent time at Boca Raton Airport, watching airplanes take off and land. According to Camila, her daughter decided she wanted to become a pilot when she was around 12 years old.

She pursued that ambition through high school and eventually began working professionally. By November 2026, Nathalia was employed as a co-pilot for Upper Jets, a private charter company based in Fort Lauderdale.

At just 20, she had accumulated more than 1,300 flight hours, according to her mother.

“She loved the freedom,” Camila said. “It was completely different seeing the world from the top.”

While Nathalia’s loved ones remembered the life she built around flying, the crash also left a trail of destruction in a Florida neighborhood. Earlier reports detailed the moments before impact, the footage that captured the disaster, and the damage left behind.

The Learjet 60 was carrying nine people from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on November 1, 2026. The aircraft went down around 12:50 p.m. EST near Cresthaven, approximately nine miles from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Trump had also been in the area earlier that morning, having departed from a nearby airport aboard Air Force One just over an hour before the crash.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the death toll, while authorities said no one on the ground was injured. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the aircraft had departed from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and was headed to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.

The crash occurred on Military Trail, a six-lane road lined with businesses and homes. Images from the scene showed a large crater in the road, with burning debris and wreckage scattered across the surrounding area.

But the most frightening details would emerge from recordings of the aircraft’s final communications with air traffic control.

The Pilots Initially Reported Turbulence Before Something Went Terribly Wrong

In the minutes before the crash, the Learjet crew was dealing with difficult weather conditions, including turbulence, icing, and precipitation. According to recordings of the final cockpit communications, archived by LiveATC.Net, the pilots were communicating with air traffic control about the conditions surrounding their aircraft.

At one point, air traffic control asked about the outside air temperature. The pilot responded, “Minus 47 degrees Celsius. We’re managing the ice, but it is moderate turbulence.” The exchange initially appeared to be a routine discussion about the weather. However, the situation soon became more alarming as the aircraft encountered precipitation.

“Now we’re picking up precipitation. We need to climb,” the pilot told air traffic control.

The controller responded, “Roger. Climb and maintain.”

What followed was a frightening change in the aircraft’s flight path.

According to the recordings, the pilot soon reported that the aircraft was losing altitude at an alarming rate. “We’re descending 8,000. Mayday, mayday. We’re descending 10,000 feet per minute. Declaring emergency 722 Bravo Delta. We are in an oversea condition, descending 20,000 feet per minute.”

The crew had declared an emergency, but the aircraft’s descent was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Air traffic control attempted to maintain communication with the pilots, asking what assistance they needed. “Let me know what you need,” the controller said.

The response from the cockpit was chilling. “We’re gonna crash into the ground,” the pilot said. The controller continued trying to communicate with the aircraft, responding, “November two Bravo Delta. I’m here with you. Talk to me.” The pilot then reported, “We are descending 22,000 feet, and we are banking 60 degrees.”

Another portion of the recording captured what Fox 35 described as an inaudible scream, followed by the words, “Look outside.” Air traffic control made another attempt to reach the crew, asking, “November two Bravo Delta. How do you hear?”

The BBC also reported that the crew’s final recorded remark came approximately 35 seconds after the initial mayday announcement. “We’re out of time,” the voice from the cockpit said.

By then, the aircraft was descending at an extraordinary speed, with the crew apparently unable to recover control.

Dashcam Footage Captures the Moment the Jet Plunged Into the Neighborhood

The terrifying final moments were also captured in footage circulating on social media. A video showing the apparent moment of the crash appears to have been recorded by a vehicle’s dashboard camera as cars traveled along an ordinary suburban road.

In the footage, the aircraft suddenly comes into view, plunging toward the ground at an almost vertical angle before disappearing into a massive explosion.

A huge fireball erupts at the impact site, followed by an enormous cloud of dark smoke that rises above the surrounding homes and trees. The scene is particularly unsettling because the aircraft appears to fall directly into an area where people would ordinarily be driving or going about their daily activities.

Additional footage from the neighborhood shows the thick smoke spreading across the sky as vehicles stop along the roadside. Several people can also be seen gathering nearby and looking toward the crash site.

The footage has not been independently verified, but it provides a disturbing glimpse of the disaster as it unfolded. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the impact as particularly shocking when he addressed reporters after the crash.

“When you see that video, it’s a jarring thing,” DeSantis said. “It’s like a missile coming down, and a massive explosion, debris going everywhere.”

The governor also described the incident as a catastrophic crash that left a large crater along the roadside.

Around 600 Residents Evacuated as the Crash Damaged the Neighborhood

While all nine people aboard the aircraft died, the impact also caused significant disruption for people living near the crash site. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue declared a mass casualty incident as emergency personnel rushed to the area. Authorities said the crash damaged local infrastructure, including water lines, while debris was scattered across Military Trail.

The damage also affected access to a nearby mobile home park, leaving approximately 600 residents in need of temporary shelter. Joel Flores, a Palm Beach County commissioner for District 3 who was the first county official at the scene, said residents were being directed to two shelters while investigators examined the crash site.

The scale of the impact was also evident in accounts from people who experienced the explosion nearby. “I heard and felt the boom,” Andrew Mannino told CNN. “The power immediately went out and is still out.” Mannino said he also smelled smoke and “saw a large black cloud immerse in the air.”

The authorities warned that the damage to the road and surrounding infrastructure would take time to repair. Officials estimated that Military Trail could remain closed for at least 30 days.

What Could Have Sent the Learjet Plunging Toward the Ground?

While the pilots’ final communications revealed a terrifying struggle to keep the aircraft under control, investigators are still trying to establish what triggered the emergency.

Weather conditions could offer some important clues. Thunderstorms were reported across the area when the Learjet crashed, and according to CNN’s report on the investigation, the aircraft had passed through a stronger storm cell just minutes before it began its rapid descent.

However, officials have not established whether the storm contributed to the crash or whether another problem caused the aircraft to lose control.

The aircraft’s extraordinary descent has also caught the attention of aviation experts. Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the Transportation Department, said the dashcam footage could prove valuable in helping investigators reconstruct the final moments.

“That is not a controlled descent,” Schiavo told CNN. “It’s clear, whatever happened, they had lost control of the plane.”

Schiavo also explained that the force of such a steep descent could have caused parts of the aircraft to break away. The subsequent explosion may have destroyed the flight data recorder, potentially making it more difficult for investigators to reconstruct exactly what happened.

Another detail investigators will likely examine closely is the pilots’ repeated references to icing before the emergency. Ice accumulating on an aircraft’s wings and other surfaces can interfere with airflow, making it difficult to maintain stable flight.

The danger is serious enough that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a safety alert in January 2024 specifically addressing the risks of in-flight icing. The agency warned that ice can “make managing the airplane’s flightpath and airspeed more difficult and can prevent the airplane from maintaining level flight.”

Still, the pilots’ reports of managing ice do not establish that icing caused Sunday’s disaster. Investigators will need to determine whether it affected the aircraft’s performance and whether other factors, including the storm conditions, played a role.

Transportation Secretary Duffy described the crash as a “horrific tragedy” and said the Federal Aviation Administration was sending a team to assist the NTSB with its investigation. “Please join me in praying for the families and loved ones of those we lost,” Duffy added.