Allan Filgueiras broke down Friday as he spoke about his daughter Nathalia’s final moments.
The grieving father, whose 20-year-old daughter served as co-pilot on the Learjet that crashed in South Florida last weekend, said he wished desperately that he had been aboard the doomed flight. “I wanted to be by her side. Inside the plane, to help, to be by her. I had to be next to her,” Filgueiras said at a press conference.
He held back tears while describing Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras as his “soulmate” and praised the young aviator for maintaining her composure during the emergency that claimed her life.
The father revealed he had studied his daughter’s radio transmissions repeatedly in the aftermath of the tragedy, searching for answers about what went wrong. “I did listen to [her radio transmissions] many times, trying to find a clue in my head how that happened,” he said. “And wow, she’s tough.”
Filgueiras spoke with evident pride about Nathalia’s ability to keep a cool head under extreme pressure, even as he struggled with the knowledge that he could not protect her in those final moments.
The crash occurred last weekend in South Florida, killing the 20-year-old co-pilot and others aboard the Learjet. The specific circumstances remain under investigation, though the father’s comments offered a glimpse into the professionalism his daughter displayed during the aircraft’s final descent.
Nathalia Filgueiras was among the victims of the fiery wreck, which drew national attention both for its devastating toll and for the youth of the co-pilot at its controls. Her father now joins a circle of families mourning those lost in the accident.
Allan Filgueiras’ emotional appearance Friday marked a public moment of grief from a parent still grappling with sudden, unimaginable loss. His words underscored both the bond he shared with his daughter and the helplessness of watching from the ground as catastrophe unfolded.
The Learjet crash in South Florida last weekend killed multiple people including Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, who was serving as co-pilot. Her father Allan Filgueiras wept at a Friday press conference as he described listening repeatedly to her final radio transmissions and wishing he could have been aboard to help her.