Nathalia Gadelha's mother shares heartbreaking fear as 20-year-old's final text to boyfriend emerges after Learjet Florida crash

Nathalia Gadelha was a 20-year-old aspiring commercial pilot who lost her life when Learjet 60 crashed in Florida, killing all nine people on board. She was the co-pilot on the flight and was identified by her mother and stepfather, according to the New York Post. “I knew that a plane was gonna take her away from me. I always knew it but I was so proud of her. I know she was living her dream,” the grieving mother told The Post.

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Who was Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras?

Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras was the doomed Learjet co-pilot who was heard pleading for help in harrowing air traffic control audio before the devastating Florida crash. She was a 20-year-old who got her pilot license while still in high school. Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras’s mother, Camila, said that her daughter would have turned 21 in January and had been working as a commercial pilot for nine months.


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Filgueiras had aspirations of becoming a commercial airline pilot, although she was still too young to apply for a position at American Airlines, according to her family. She completed her aviation training at American Flyers, a flying school headquartered in Addison, Texas, which also operates a branch in Pompano Beach, Florida.

“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,” Camila said from her home in Palm Beach County. Camila’s husband, Thiago Corteleti, 44, told The Post that Filgueiras had 1,300 hours of flying experience. According to The Post, Nathalia Gadelha texted her boyfriend, Justin, just 10 minutes before the plane crashed, he said. “She just said, ‘I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice,'” Corteleti said.

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Nathalia Gadelha earned her pilot license just at 17

The young aviator, who grew up in Palm Beach County, had previously attracted attention in local media after earning her private pilot’s licence at just 17 in October 2023, even before obtaining her driver's licence. A senior at West Boca Raton High School at the time, Filgueiras said she began taking flying lessons in 2020. Her father, who had learned to fly recreationally in 2018, also helped teach her.

Nathalia Filgueiras developed a passion for aviation at an early age after her father took her flying in his small Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft.

Her family frequently shared social media posts of their trips together in private aircraft. In 2023, the School District of Palm Beach County's Aviation Academy funded her pilot's licence after launching the programme that year.

“I like being different than everyone, so to me I think it’s cool that like it’s not really an opportunity,” Filgueiras said. “I just didn’t do it, and this is how it ended up. But I think it’s cool. Some people think that it’s weird that I can fly planes, but I can’t drive a car, I mean I can but, a lot of people think it’s funny. I think it’s funny, and I now want my [driver’s] license really bad,” she added.

Nathalia Gadelha's last video with her boyfriend

In a recent social media post, Filgueiras shared a video of herself flying alongside her boyfriend. The accompanying text highlighted their achievements as young pilots. “How often do you see 2 pilots under 21 with a commercial, multi-engine, instrument, CFI/CFI-I [Certified Flight Instructor/Certified Flight Instructor – Instrument],” she wrote in the overlay text.

After obtaining her licence, Filgueiras began working as an instructor at a flight school in Fort Lauderdale before moving on to another piloting job. “Everybody was so impressed with her. They hired her because they knew how good she was and how much she loved it,” her mother, Camila, said.

“I know if she could pick a way to go, this would be her way to go, but I didn’t want it to be so soon,” she added. Meanwhile, authorities are yet to identify the other eight people who died aboard the Learjet in the crash.