Nathalia Gadelha identified as 20-year-old Learjet co-pilot in the tragic plane crash in Florida yesterday- here's what we know about the co-pilot who earned her pilot’s license at 17

Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras had wanted to become a pilot since she was a child. By the time she was 17, she had already earned her private pilot’s license while still attending high school. Nathalia Gadelha was working as a commercial pilot just at the ripe age of 20 and had built up 1,300 hours of flying experience. Her promising aviation career came to a tragic end yesterday. The Learjet 60 she was co-piloting crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, killing all nine people on board.

Her family has spoken about her love of flying. They have talked about her ambitions for the future. They felt extremely proud watching her chase her dream. The inputs are taken from the New York Post and Marca.

Who was Nathalia Gadelha, the Learjet 60 co-pilot?

Nathalia Gadelha grew up in Palm Beach County, Florida and was the middle of three sisters. Her interest in aviation began when she was young, after her father took her flying in his small Beechcraft Bonanza.


Her mother, Camila, recalled how her daughter announced that she wanted to become a pilot after one of those flights.

“One day after flying with him, she came home, and we were in our room, and she walked in, and she said, ‘I’m gonna be a pilot’ and I said, ‘No, you won’t,” Camila told The New York Post.

Her stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, supported the ambition. Gadelha eventually turned that childhood dream into a career, earning her pilot's license and later working as a commercial pilot.

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How did Nathalia Gadelha earn her pilot's license at 17?

Gadelha began taking flying lessons in 2020. Her father, who had learned to fly recreationally in 2018, also helped teach her. In October 2023, while she was a senior at West Boca Raton High School, she earned her private pilot's license at just 17. The School District of Palm Beach County's Aviation Academy funded the license through its program, which had been introduced that year.

At the time, she had accumulated 88 hours of flight time and passed the required knowledge test. She later graduated from American Flyers, a flight school based in Addison, Texas, with a branch in Pompano Beach, Florida. She also worked as an instructor at another flight school in Fort Lauderdale before taking another pilot position.

Gadelha once joked about being able to fly an aircraft before getting a driver's license.

“I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly,'” she told CBS12 in 2023.

Her ambition was to become a commercial airline pilot. However, her family said she was still too young to apply for a job at American Airlines.

What did Nathalia Gadelha's family say about her aviation career?

Her family said flying was more than a job for Gadelha. It was the dream she had worked towards since childhood. Camila told The New York Post that her daughter had been working as a commercial pilot for nine months.

“I wanted her to live her dream, but I knew that her dream was going to be the thing that would take her away from me,” she said. Corteleti said Gadelha had accumulated 1,300 hours of flying experience. He also revealed that she had sent a message to her boyfriend, Justin, around 10 minutes before the crash.

“She just said, ‘I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice,'” he said.

What happened in the Palm Beach County Learjet crash?

Learjet 60 was travelling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it crashed in Palm Beach County on Sunday afternoon. The aircraft entered a steep descent. Reportedly dropping at more than 20,000 feet per minute, before striking a residential area near Cresthaven. All 9 people aboard died. Air traffic control recordings captured the crew reporting turbulence and icing before declaring an emergency. The final cockpit message was reported as: “we're out of time”.

What have investigators said about the Florida plane crash?

Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said icing and turbulence could have contributed to the crash and may have caused the aircraft to stall while flying at 34,000 feet. However, he stressed that investigators would examine several possible factors, including how the crew responded to the reported conditions. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was expected to send investigators to the crash site, with a media briefing scheduled in West Palm Beach.

The cause of the crash has not been established.