Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, texted her boyfriend about turbulence and ice just ten minutes before her Learjet crashed in Florida.
Filgueiras, the young copilot on the doomed flight, sent the message at approximately 12:40 p.m. Sunday, her stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, 44, said from his Florida home. The plane went down at 12:50 p.m. In Palm Beach County, killing everyone on board.
“She just said, ‘I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice,'” Corteleti added.
The Brazilian-born pilot had already logged roughly 1,300 flight hours despite her age, according to her family. She frequently flew alongside her boyfriend, who is also a pilot, and regularly posted photos and videos of the couple airborne together.
Filgueiras grew up in Palm Beach County and had earned her private pilot’s license in October 2023 at just 17 years old — before she was even old enough to drive.
“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.
Her co-pilot on Sunday’s flight has not been publicly identified. In harrowing audio from the plane’s final moments, he appears to be reciting the Lord’s Prayer while Filgueiras screams as the aircraft plummets toward the ground, according to reports of the recording.
The Learjet had departed Austin, Texas, Sunday morning and was bound for the Bahamas. None of the other passengers on board have been identified.
Filgueiras remained in communication with both her loved ones and air traffic control until the moment the aircraft nosedived and struck the ground at speed, her family said.
The crash occurred in Palm Beach County on Sunday afternoon, leaving no survivors.
