On November 1, 2026, the crash of Learjet 60 ended up taking nine lives, including a 20-year-old co-pilot. Now, her instructor reacted to Nathalia's tragic passing.
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Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleThe crash of the Learjet 60 near Palm Beach on November 1, 2026, left everyone questioning as the investigation continued. Nine people who were in the business jet passed away when the Learjet 60 crashed. The victims were 55-year-old pilot Jeff Gregory, 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 45-year-old Texas tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their children- 4-year-old Emma and 2-year-old Charlie. Other victims were Emma and Charlie's nanny, Anita Maria Cetina, and Adam and Helen's friends, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.
The alleged initial reason for the flight's crash has been said to be bad weather, heavy icing, and extreme turbulence. The further investigation in this case has been ongoing; however, it was 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia's passing that left her instructor in utter emptiness. For the unversed, Nathalia was very ambitious and earned her pilot's license even before her driver's license, and she was very enthusiastic about her career.
Nathalia's family members have since broken their silence and revealed that Nathalia had wanted to be a pilot since she was just 12 years old. Speaking to PEOPLE recently, Nathalia's instructor expressed his grief over her passing.
He called her sweet and a wonderful person, adding that his heart was ripped out as soon as he came across the news of Nathalia's passing due to the Learjet 60 crash. Nathalia was an 'incredible' person to everyone who was close to her, and she was close to her instructor, Christopher Kirk; her death left him in grief and filled him with emptiness.
Nathalia would make her instructor climb altitudes and spin down so many times that he had to ask her to stop, as he felt nauseous. This shows how passionate Nathalia was towards her profession. He said:
"I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I have a pretty good stomach for it, but she made me climb up to altitude and spin down so many times that I finally had to tell her that I had to quit because I was becoming nauseous."
There have been a lot of questions about Nathalia's age relative to her role, and in response, Kirk mentioned that the co-pilot's age had nothing to do with what she was qualified for. Speaking more about the same, Nathalia's instructor said:
"It had nothing to do with her being qualified. It is because of her skills as a pilot and how she interacted with other people that presented the opportunity to fly."
Nathalia Filgueiras was extremely ambitious about her career in aviation. She began very early, so much so that in 2023, at just 17, she had qualified to fly an aircraft. Nathalia's mom revealed in an interview that her daughter logged more than 1,300 hours of flight time and worked for Upper Jets, a private charter firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
According to her sister, Nathalia wanted to be a pilot since she was just 12 years old. Speaking more about her career, her mom said Nathalia had been working with Learjet for nine months as a co-pilot. The young aviator attended West Boca Raton High School and graduated from American Flyers, a flight training school based in Addison, Texas.
What do you think about Nathalia Filgueiras' instructor's comment about the scrutiny over her age relative to her role?
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