The young woman was featured locally for earning her pilot’s license in high school.
A 20-year-old woman has reportedly been identified by her family as the co-pilot aboard the Learjet 60 that fatally crashed in Florida on Sunday.
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, who earned her private pilot’s license at just 17 years old, was the co-pilot of the Learjet 60 from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas, her mother and stepfather confirmed to the New York Post on Monday.
Speculation grew online Sunday evening that Filgueiras was the co-pilot heard in devastating audio communicating to air traffic control that the jet was going to crash into the ground. In her TikTok videos, Filgueiras frequently posted her flying trips. One video appears to show the young woman in the cockpit of the jet that crashed on Sunday.
In the audio, reported by The Daily Wire, the co-pilot is heard screaming while speaking to air traffic control, and her last chilling message was “Holy f*ck, we’re out of time!”
Filgueiras was still a senior at West Boca Raton High School when she earned her pilot’s license. At the time, she was featured in local media reports for accomplishing the feat before obtaining her driver’s license. Then, just 17, she joked that while she couldn’t drive, she could fly.
Filgueiras began taking flying lessons in 2020 and had logged 88 flight hours by the time she received her license, according to the Post. The School District of Palm Beach County’s Aviation Academy funded her training, and she later graduated from American Flyers flight school with aspirations to become a commercial airline pilot.
As highlighted by The Daily Wire, experts believe severe weather could have played a role in the jet’s rapid descent and crash. One aviation expert told South Florida outlet WPEC that a line of severe thunderstorms in South Florida on Sunday could have damaged the Learjet if the pilot flew into the rough air. “If the pilot flew into the tops of one of the thunderstorms, in that very rough air, he could have damaged the airplane to the point where he lost control,” said DeWitt Ingram, a Learjet type-rated captain.