Co-Pilot of Doomed Florida Jet Identified, She Made News After Getting Pilot's License in High School
The co-pilot of a Learjet 60 that crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday has been identified as a 20-year-old woman who received her pilot license while still enrolled in high school three years ago.
Her parents confirmed to the New York Post that her name was Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras and that she would have turned 21 this upcoming January.
“I wanted her to live her dream, but I knew that her dream was going to be the thing that would take her away from me,” Gadelha’s mother, Camila, told the New York Post after the deadly crash.
“I knew that a plane was gonna take her away from me,” she added. “I always knew it but I was so proud of her. I know she was living her dream.”
🚨 BREAKING: Nathalia Gadelha, 20, has been identified as the co-pilot of the Learjet 90 that crashed near West Palm Beach on Sunday.
Absolutely heartbreaking. Praying for her loved ones and everyone affected by this tragedy. 💔😢 https://t.co/GTQnqaxpUr
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) November 2, 2026
Gadelha’s dreams of becoming a pilot started at a young age after she was “taken out in her father’s small Beechcraft Bonanza” for fun flying trips, according to the New York Post.
“One day after flying with him, she came home, and we were in our room, and she walked in, and she said, ‘I’m gonna be a pilot’ and I said, ‘No, you won’t,’” Camila told the New York Post through tears.
“Thiago looked at me, and said, ‘If that’s what she wants to be, she will be a pilot,’ and I was like, ‘No she won’t,’” she added.
Thiago Corteleti, Camila’s husband, told the New York Post that their daughter had 1,300 hours of flying experience.
Gadelha was previously featured in a story by West Palm Beach outlet WPEC in late 2023 after she earned her private pilot’s license while only 17 years old and before she’d even received her driver’s license.
“I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly,’” she told the outlet at the time.
According to WPEC, she started pilot training in 2020, when she was still just a sophomore in high school.
The station also stressed that the coursework she had to pass to become a pilot was extensive and included two to three years of “test preps, quizzes, book work in the classroom, flight simulations and watching videos.”
Gadelha was also required to complete 40 hours of flight time with an instructor and 10 hours of time piloting a plane alone.
Gadelha and eight others died Sunday when the plane she was co-piloting fell from the sky like a torpedo after encountering turbulence, icing, and precipitation, according to Miami station WTVJ.
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“The plane was heading east at 35,000 feet (about 11 kilometers) when pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to climb 2,000 feet (about 610 meters),” the station reported.
“Moments later, the plane entered a steep dive, first 10,000 feet per minute, then 20,000 feet per minute and up to 30,000 feet per minute, speeding the plane beyond its design limits, according to air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data,” the report continued.
Warning: This video may be disturbing to some viewers.
WATCH: New video shows Learjet 60 business jet crashing near West Palm Beach, Florida.
The plane was completely disintegrated upon impact. Number of casualties unknown. https://t.co/l5JT9KEWnQ
— BNO News (@BNONews) November 1, 2026
According to Gadelha’s father, she texted her boyfriend roughly 10 minutes before the deadly crash.
“She just said, ‘I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice,’” he recalled.
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