A 20-year-old co-pilot who died in a devastating plane crash in Florida sent her boyfriend a final message describing dangerous flying conditions just minutes before the aircraft went down, her family has revealed.
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras was among nine people killed when a Learjet 60 crashed into a residential area in Palm Beach County on Sunday, November 1.
According to her family, Filgueiras contacted her boyfriend shortly before the crash, telling him she was experiencing turbulence and ice while flying.
“She just said, ‘I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice,’” her stepfather told the New York Post.
The message has emerged as investigators examine the circumstances surrounding the crash, which occurred during a flight from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas.
A final message before the tragedy
Filgueiras had been communicating with loved ones during the flight, including her boyfriend, Justin, who also worked as a pilot.
The couple frequently flew together and shared photographs and videos documenting their experiences in the air.
Her family said the young woman had already accumulated approximately 1,300 hours of flying experience despite being only 20 years old.
Her final communication with her boyfriend came just minutes before the Learjet crashed, killing everyone aboard.
Audio reportedly captured during the aircraft’s final moments included Filgueiras expressing distress as the plane descended.
Another pilot aboard the aircraft, whose identity had not been released in the supplied report, appeared to be reciting the Lord’s Prayer during the emergency.
The recording has become another heartbreaking detail surrounding the final moments of the flight.
She earned her pilot’s license before she could drive
Filgueiras had developed her aviation career at an unusually young age.
Growing up in Palm Beach County, she earned her private pilot’s license in October 2023, when she was just 17 years old and still attending high school.
Her achievement attracted local media attention because she had qualified to fly an airplane before obtaining her driver’s license.
In an interview with CBS12 at the time, she spoke proudly about that accomplishment.
“I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly,’” she said.
By the age of 20, Filgueiras had built substantial flying experience and regularly shared her passion for aviation with her boyfriend.
Photographs posted online showed her inside aircraft cockpits and enjoying time with Justin, offering glimpses into a life closely connected to flying.
Investigators examine deadly crash
The Learjet had departed Austin on Sunday morning and was traveling toward the Bahamas when it crashed in South Florida.
Video footage captured the aircraft descending toward a neighborhood before the impact, which produced a large fireball.
Investigators subsequently examined the wreckage at the crash site in Greenacres, where the impact left a large crater.
All nine people aboard the aircraft were killed.
The circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation, and the information provided does not establish what caused the aircraft to go down.
For Filgueiras’ loved ones, the tragedy has brought an abrupt end to the life of a young woman who had pursued aviation since her teenage years.
Only three years after proudly celebrating the achievement of becoming a licensed pilot before she could drive, Filgueiras lost her life in the skies she had spent so much of her young adulthood exploring.
