Grieving father of Florida Learjet co-pilot defends his daughter's reputation after crash
The father of the 20-year-old co-pilot killed alongside eight others in a Florida Learjet crash said Friday he has repeatedly listened to her final radio transmissions, searching for answers and finding pride in how she handled the crisis.
Allan Filgueiras, a pilot who helped teach Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras to fly, said he marveled at how “she's tough” even as the plane plunged straight toward the ground Sunday.
“I wanted to be by her side. Inside the plane, to help,” he said at a news conference, often holding back tears.
“She showed me what it is to be a hero,” he said, “because once you see that coming, a lot of the big boys — military or whatever — they can’t handle. And she was the one over there to the last minute fighting.”
Nathalia Filgueiras can first be heard calmly telling air traffic control about ice buildup on the plane as it flew into a thunderstorm. Turbulence tossed it up and down by 700 feet (200 meters), but the situation quickly escalated as the aircraft fell at breathtaking speed. “Declare an emergency 722-Bravo-Delta. We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute!” she said.
Her father and aviation safety experts have praised her composure as she called out updates while knowing the plane's fate was sealed. The captain, 55-year-old Jeff Gregory, is believed to have been at the controls.
“For the family — it’s like having the heart torn from my chest,” Allan Filgueiras said in Spanish. “I have to find a way to go on living.”
The family has challenged online criticism questioning whether she had enough experience to be in the cockpit of a high-performance business jet. She had more than 1,300 hours of experience and completed extensive training to earn her commercial pilot’s license and Learjet certification.
Her father's attorney, Stuart Grossman, said the news conference aimed to “preserve not just her memory, but her reputation.”
“She was at the top of her class in everything that she did, and she was perfectly qualified to be the co-pilot on this flight, despite her tender years,” Grossman said, noting there were no immediate plans for any lawsuit.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet determined what caused the crash. The Learjet accelerated beyond its design limits as it fell, and pieces of its tail were found miles away from the crash site, which is a deep crater on the edge of a road. Investigators were still searching the area Friday after finding part of an engine a day earlier. The cockpit recorder remains missing.
Allan Filgueiras said he helped teach her how to fly after taking her aloft for the first time at age 12. Once she got a job as a pilot, she told him she couldn’t believe she was getting paid to do something she loved.
“It was her happiest moment, to fly,” he said.
Her mentor and instructor, Chris Kirk, said she earned her position through dedication and perseverance by putting in hard work and long hours.
During her Learjet 60 check ride in March, the examiner was so impressed he thought she had more than 5,000 hours of experience — nearly four times the amount of flight time she had logged.
Kirk said her professionalism was evident in those final radio transmissions, which gave the NTSB important information. Many members of the military special forces who Kirk worked with probably couldn't keep their wits in a similar situation.
“This was an incredible human being,” Kirk said, “who did a job that very few people would have been able to do under a duress that’s unimaginable.”
Retired airline pilot John Cox said earlier this week that his career began similarly to Nathalia Filgueiras', as he started flying professionally at age 19. He said she had done well to earn a Learjet co-pilot's seat.
“To be in the right seat of a Lear 60, she had to impress somebody, because that’s a good ride. I mean, that’s great. I know she loved it,” said Cox, who now runs Safety Operating Systems, an aviation consulting company.
The other crash victims included technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson; his wife, Helen Sharp; and their two young children, relatives said. The family’s nanny, Ana María Ramírez Cetina, was also killed. The other two victims were Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, who owned the Arca Boutique Hotel in Honduras.
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