Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, the 20-year-old co-pilot aboard the Learjet that crashed in Florida, earned her pilot’s license at just 17 after learning to fly with help from her father, an aviation enthusiast.
Filgueiras secured her license before she had learned to drive and often spoke about the sense of freedom she found in the skies, according to her mother and interviews that have resurfaced following the fatal crash.
Camila Corteleti told The New York Times that her daughter was at the controls of the Learjet when it plunged near West Palm Beach on Sunday, close to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Authorities are investigating the circumstances of the crash, which claimed the lives of all nine people aboard.
Corteleti said her daughter obtained her pilot’s license at 17 and later worked for Upper Jets, a private charter company based in Fort Lauderdale.
“She loved the freedom,” Corteleti said. “Seeing the world from above was completely different.”
She also told the New York Post that she had long feared her daughter’s passion for aviation might one day “take her away.”
“I wanted her to follow her dream, but I knew that dream could be the thing that took her away from me,” she said.
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, was piloting the Learjet 60 when it crashed near West Palm Beach on Sunday
Aviation experts have raised the possibility that the $2 million jet encountered a dangerous condition known as coffin corner
Federal investigators are working to establish what caused the business jet to go down
“I always knew a plane might take her away from me. I knew it, but I was so proud of her. She was living her dream.”
Filgueiras’s father, Allan Filgueiras, is a recreational pilot who taught his daughter to fly. Her mother said Nathalia also enjoyed watching aircraft depart from Boca Raton Airport.
As a senior at West Boca Raton High School, Filgueiras spoke with CBS12 about earning her Private Pilot’s License before learning to drive.
“I definitely brag about it because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I say, ‘Yes, but I can fly,’” she told the local station in October 2023.
“I like being different from everyone else, so I think it’s cool. It wasn’t really something I planned as an opportunity—I just didn’t drive, and this is how things turned out,” she added.
“Some people think it’s strange that I can fly planes but can’t drive a car. I can drive, but a lot of people find it funny. I find it funny too, and now I really want my driver’s license.”
Filgueiras grew up in Palm Beach County and was featured in a local report after earning her pilot’s license at 17 in 2023
The crash carved a large crater into the roadway and damaged nearby infrastructure
Before obtaining her license, Filgueiras completed Ground School, which includes extensive theory, flight-simulation training, at least 40 hours flying with an instructor and 10 hours of solo flight.
Her social media accounts reflected her enthusiasm for aviation, including a Facebook photograph showing a plane wing above a blanket of clouds.
Her father commented that he was “a proud dad of a super pilot,” while her aunt, Tamara Filgueiras, wrote that she was a proud aunt and that both pilots were “super pilots.”
Corteleti also regularly posted photographs of Nathalia and her siblings traveling aboard private aircraft.
Audio from the fatal crash in Greenacres, in Palm Beach County, captured the co-pilot reciting the Lord’s Prayer during the aircraft’s final moments.
As the prayer continued, Filgueiras could reportedly be heard saying that the Learjet 60 had reached a 60-degree bank, meaning the aircraft was tilted sharply to one side.
The cause of the crash, which occurred about eight miles from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, has not been determined
The aircraft crashed moments later in a fireball beside the road, killing everyone on board.
Officials had not yet released the identities of the other passengers, with authorities expected to provide additional details at a press conference on Monday.
The Learjet was traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it went down. Early speculation has focused on stormy weather as one possible factor.
Several aviation experts have also suggested that the jet may have encountered “coffin corner” while attempting to climb over two storm systems, or cells.
Coffin corner occurs at high altitude when an aircraft’s minimum safe speed and maximum safe speed become dangerously close, leaving pilots with only a narrow margin in which to maintain control.
If the aircraft travels too slowly or too quickly, it can stall and become uncontrollable within seconds.
