The co-pilot of the Learjet that crashed into a Greenacres, Florida, neighborhood on Sunday was 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras. Her father, Allan Filgueiras, confirmed her identity to NBC Miami. Her sister, Giulia, said the family is from Brazil, that Nathalia learned to fly from their father, who is also a pilot, and that flying was her greatest passion, NBC reported.
On Friday, Allan Filgueiras spoke publicly for the first time. He told reporters he has played the air traffic control recording of his daughter's last words again and again, looking for any clue to what brought the jet down - and that what he heard instead was his daughter fighting to keep control of the aircraft to the very end, NBC News reported.
"She made me so proud," he said. "She showed me what it is to be a hero." The family's attorney, Stuart Grossman, said the point of the news conference was to protect her reputation as well as her memory.
Filgueiras earned her pilot's license in 2023 when she was 17, while a senior at West Boca Raton Community High School. Her license rated her to fly the jet but not to be in command of the flight, according to the same report. Her mother, Camila Corteleti, told the New York Times that she had logged more than 1,300 flight hours and worked for Upper Jets, a Fort Lauderdale private charter
