"I've Got Turbulence": 20-Year-Old Co-Pilot Texted Boyfriend 10 Minutes Before Florida Learjet Crash
- Nathalia Gadelha, 20, sent her boyfriend a text message about turbulence and ice just 10 minutes before the Learjet 60 crashed in Florida
- The young co-pilot had already logged over 1,300 flight hours and earned her private pilot's licence at just 17, before she could even drive
- The crash killed all nine people on board, and investigators are now examining whether the aircraft began breaking apart mid-air
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Source: Facebook
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras had been chasing the skies since she was a teenager. On 1 November 2026, that dream came to a devastating end when the Learjet 60 she was co-piloting crashed in Greenacres, Palm Beach County, Florida, killing all nine people on board.
Ten minutes before impact, the 20-year-old sent a text to her boyfriend, Justin, who was also a licensed pilot. Her stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, later revealed the contents of that message. She told Justin the aircraft was dealing with turbulence and ice accumulation. It was one of the last things she ever communicated.
"I've got turbulence, I've got ice."
A dream that started in high school
Nathalia's passion for aviation was extraordinary by any measure. She earned her private pilot's licence in 2023 at the age of 17, while still a senior at West Boca Raton Community High School in Florida. Remarkably, she could fly a plane before she ever got behind the wheel of a car.
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In a 2023 interview with WPEC-TV, she laughed about the reactions she got. She said:
"Some people think that it's weird that I can fly planes, but I can't drive a car. I think it's funny."
By the time of the crash, she had accumulated more than 1,300 hours of flight experience and had been working as a commercial pilot for approximately nine months. She was qualified to fly the Learjet 60 but was not yet authorised to serve as pilot in command. She would have turned 21 in January.
Source: Facebook
What happened in the final minutes
The Learjet had departed Austin, Texas, bound for the Bahamas. While flying over Florida at around 35,000 feet, the crew began reporting turbulence, ice and precipitation to air traffic control. Recordings captured the situation deteriorating rapidly, with the aircraft losing altitude at a rate of 10,000 feet per minute before the crew declared an emergency.
Nathalia's voice could be heard in the recordings as the plane descended. Dashcam footage on the ground captured the jet plunging before exploding on impact. The crash also prompted evacuations in a nearby residential community.
National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman confirmed that investigators were looking closely at the weather conditions the aircraft encountered. He also said preliminary evidence suggested the jet may have begun breaking apart before it hit the ground, with fragments expected to be found at a distance from the main crash site. The investigation remains ongoing.
Read the full story here.
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Source: Briefly News
