20-year-old woman piloting plane that slammed into Florida street, killing 9, identified
Filgueiras identified as co-pilot
A report identified Nathalia Filgueiras as the co-pilot of the private jet that crashed in Florida on Sunday. All nine people aboard died. Filgueiras was from Boca Raton, Florida. Her mother, Camila Corteleti, told The New York Times that her daughter had earned a pilot’s license at 17 and recorded more than 1,300 hours of flight time.
A lifelong passion for flying
Corteleti said her daughter had loved flying throughout her life. She described the experience of seeing the world from above as freeing and unlike anything else.
Flight and final radio calls
The Learjet 60 departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, bound for the Bahamas. It descended and crashed beside a Florida road, where witnesses’ footage showed a large fireball. A pilot aboard reported the rapid descent in a mayday call, saying the aircraft was descending at 10,000 feet per minute. About 35 seconds after the first distress call, the pilot said, “We’re out of time.”
Key points
- All nine people aboard the Learjet 60 died in the Florida crash.
- Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, was identified as the aircraft’s co-pilot.
- She had logged more than 1,300 flight hours after earning her license at 17.
- A pilot radioed a mayday as the plane descended rapidly.