The grieving father of 20-year-old Learjet co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, who died in a plane crash in Florida last weekend, broke down in tears Friday as he shared his heartbreaking wish that he could have been aboard the doomed aircraft with his daughter.
“I wanted to be by her side. Inside the plane, to help, to be by her. I had to be next to her,” Allan Filgueiras said during an emotional press conference.
Struggling to contain his grief, Allan described Nathalia as his “soulmate” and expressed immense pride in his daughter for remaining calm and composed during the terrifying moments leading up to the fatal crash.
Speaking in Coral Gables, Florida, on November 6, Allan Filgueiras opened up about the devastating loss of his daughter and revealed that he had repeatedly listened to her final radio communications, hoping to understand what went wrong.
“I did listen to [her radio transmissions] many times, trying to find a clue in my head how that happened. And wow, she’s tough,” the grieving father said.
Allan recalled sharing his passion for aviation with Nathalia, who earned her pilot’s license while still in high school, before she was even old enough to drive. As her flying skills developed, she eventually became her father’s flight instructor.
He also remembered how much Nathalia loved flying professionally, recalling her once telling him, “I would pay for this, but they’re actually paying me.”
The $2 million Learjet 60 was reportedly traveling from Texas to the Bahamas on Sunday when it suddenly plunged from the sky and crashed onto a street in Palm Beach, Florida.
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, the 20-year-old co-pilot who died in the November 1, 2026, Learjet 60 crash in Florida, made a desperate mayday call to air traffic control as the aircraft rapidly lost altitude in its final moments.
“722 Bravo Delta, we’re descending 8,000. Mayday, Mayday, we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute!” Nathalia was heard shouting over the radio as the plane plummeted toward the ground.
Despite the terrifying situation, the young aviator continued relaying crucial updates about the jet’s speed and altitude to air traffic controllers.
In her final transmissions, she urgently warned that the aircraft was about to “crash” and that they were “out of time,” just moments before the Learjet slammed into the ground and erupted into a massive fireball.
All nine people aboard the aircraft were killed in the devastating crash.
A Learjet 60 carrying nine people crashed into a residential neighborhood in South Florida on November 1, 2026, killing everyone aboard the aircraft.
Among those who lost their lives were 44-year-old multimillionaire tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their two young children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2. Robinson’s brother confirmed the family’s deaths on Monday.
The tragedy also claimed the lives of family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, along with nanny Anita Maria Apellido Cetina.
The aircraft’s pilot in command, 55-year-old Jeff Gregory, also died in the crash. In a heartbreaking detail from the plane’s final radio communications, Gregory appeared to recite the Lord’s Prayer as the aircraft descended toward the ground.
