Two-time Pro Bowl running back Joe Mixon is struggling to process the news that he flew aboard the same Learjet, with the same two pilots, just weeks before it crashed in Florida on Sunday.
Mixon, 30, said he was “absolutely devastated” by the crash, which claimed nine lives. The former Cincinnati Bengal shared his grief in an emotional tribute on X Tuesday.
“I flew on that exact aircraft last month with those same two pilots,” Mixon wrote. “They were incredible professionals and genuinely wonderful people.”
Mixon specifically remembered 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, saying her story made the tragedy even more painful.
“Hearing the young woman’s story and learning about the bright future she had ahead of her makes it even more heartbreaking that her life was cut so short,” he wrote.
Mixon extended his prayers to the families of all those on board, describing the crash as a “tragic reminder of how fragile life is.”
“Love on your loved ones while you can, because you never know what tomorrow may bring,” he wrote at the close of his tribute.
Filgueiras was serving as co-pilot aboard the Learjet 60 with 55-year-old pilot Jeff Gregory during a flight from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas.
The young pilot, who was raised in Palm Beach County, drew local attention in October 2023 after earning her private pilot’s license at 17. She was still in high school at the time and had not yet obtained a driver’s license.
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Filgueiras had been flying commercially for nine months and accumulated 1,300 hours in the air before her death, her grieving family told The Post.
The pilots requested an altitude of about 37,000 feet to rise above severe weather. They reported icing and turbulence before the jet entered a steep dive, descending at more than 20,000 feet per minute.
The aircraft eventually crashed into a mobile home park in Palm Beach County, bringing down power lines and carving a massive crater into the ground.
Air traffic control recordings capture Filgueiras screaming as she spoke with a controller moments before the crash. Gregory can be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer during the final seconds.
Just 10 minutes before the crash, Filgueiras had also texted her boyfriend, Justin, saying the aircraft had encountered turbulence and was dealing with icing.
The passengers killed in the devastating crash included 44-year-old tech executive Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their two young children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, Robinson’s brother confirmed Monday.
Family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, along with the family’s nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina, also died in the crash.
Federal investigators have not identified the cause of the Learjet’s plunge. Authorities said Monday that the aircraft was flying through temperatures of minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
The jet began breaking apart before impact, scattering debris across an area roughly half a mile wide, the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference.
Investigators have not yet established whether the aircraft was equipped with a cockpit voice recorder or whether the device survived the crash.
