Young pilot’s chilling final text before horror nosedive
The chilling last message a 20-year-old pilot sent her boyfriend before a “cataclysmic” crash has been revealed.
Source: X (distressing footage and language)
US transport officials say a business jet that crashed with nine people on board may have been breaking apart before it slammed into the ground like a missile in South Florida.
In an update on Tuesday morning (AEST), the National Transport Safety Board said it was looking into poor weather conditions before the sudden plummet.
Officials said there were some clues the plane was breaking up before hitting the earth at speed.
Separately, 20-year-old Nathalia Filgueiras was named in media as a co-pilot.
The young pilot reportedly got her licence in high school, aged 17, before she learned how to drive.
Ten minutes before the crash she texted her boyfriend Justin and said: “I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice”, the New York Post reported.
You might like
Her mother, Camila, and her stepfather told the newspaper she 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,” Camila said from her home in Palm Beach County.
“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.”
Nathalia Filgueiras had been a commercial pilot for nine months. Photo: Supplied
Video recorded by people inside their cars captured the terrifying moment the Bahamas-bound aircraft plunged from the sky before striking near the Palm Beach County roadway and exploding.
Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining a crater as people milled about, expressing shock that it landed so close to homes and passing cars, in a neighbourhood not far from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that the Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach County around lunch time on Sunday, calling it a “horrific tragedy”.
Stay informed, daily
The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground being injured or killed.
“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” DeSantis told reporters at the scene.
“It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”
The aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane was at 35,000 feet when pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to climb another 2,000 feet.
Moments later, the plane entered a steep dive, first 10,000 feet per minute, then 20,000 feet per minute and up to 30,000 feet per minute, speeding the plane beyond its design limits, according to air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data.
The pilot declared an emergency, issued distress calls then banked sharply to the right before crashing.
Minutes before the crash, the pilot reported ice accumulating on the jet and turbulence that was jolting it by as much as 700 feet, according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net.
The situation rapidly deteriorated, with the pilot declaring an emergency.
“Mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.
“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot said before delivering a devastating acknowledgement of what was about to happen.
“We’re going to crash into the ground.”
-with AAP
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
