The pilot heard in the heartbreaking final mayday call of a business jet that plunged into a Florida neighbourhood has been identified as Nathalia Gadelha, 20.
Gadelha, first identified by The New York Post, was believed to be one of the nine people killed when the Bahamas-bound Learjet 60 plunged more than 30,000 feet in a minute and exploded upon impact in Green Acres, 11km south of Palm Beach.
The cause of the crash is still yet to be confirmed but US federal investigators are expected to provide an update on Monday, local time.
The Post reported that Gadelha’s other Camila and her stepfather confirmed to the US masthead that she was the co-pilot on the doomed flight which departed Austin on Sunday.
Local media reported that Gadelha made the major achievement of attaining her private pilot’s licence at the age of 17 before she could even drive.
She told local channel CBS12 that she received private pilot lessons as well as being mentored by her father, who made aviation his recreational past-time in 2018.
She eventually attained her pilot’s licence in October 2023, as part of a program conducted by the School District of Palm Beach County’s Aviation Academy and revealed that her dream was to eventually become a commercial airline pilot.
That followed her graduation with the Pompano Beach branch of US flying school American Flyers.
“I like being different than everyone, so to me I think it’s cool that like it’s not really an opportunity,” she told the station.
“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) licence really bad,” she added.
Her social media feed also revealed her love of flying with a number of posts showing images of her in the cockpit of light aircraft, and often alongside her boyfriend Justin, another pilot.
The revelations came as witnesses and residents relived the the terrifying moment on Sunday afternoon when the jet plunged from the sky with flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater as shocked residents looked on in horror.
“Debris was everywhere. Debris hit my house. Everything was on fire. The road was on fire,” Anthony Blackmon, who lives near the crash site, told NBC affiliate WTVJ. “I’ve always seen it on the news, never thought it would happen so close to somebody like how it happened today.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground injured or killed. Authorities are still yet to release the names of the people who died.
Palm Beach County authorities were evacuating about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community while the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigate the crash.
Authorities have not provided any information about what caused the Bahamas-bound Learjet 60 to crash. NTSB officials planned to hold a news conference in West Palm Beach on Monday.
The jet began its journey at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, and airport spokesperson Jim Reynolds described it as a private aircraft. He could not immediately provide details about who was on board.
The plane was heading east at 35,000 feet (about 11 kilometers) when co-pilot Gadelha started to report problems.
Gadelha said ice was accumulating on the jet and that turbulence was jolting it by as much as 700 feet (213 meters), according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net. Rain pounded the region on Sunday.
“We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” she told controllers.
The situation rapidly deteriorated.
Gadelha requested permission to climb another 2,000 feet (about 610 meteres) then quickly declared an emergency as the jet lost altitude at an alarming rate.
“We’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” she radioed.
“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed, before delivering a devastating acknowledgment of what was about to happen. “We’re going to crash into the ground.”
The plane banked sharply to the right before crashing and exploding.
“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.”
