The father of the 20-year-old co-pilot who died along with eight others when their Learjet crashed in Florida said Friday that he listened to his daughter’s final, heartbreaking radio transmissions “several times” since the crash.
Allan Filgueiras, a pilot who helped teach his daughter to fly, was searching for answers to why the plane plunged from the sky on Sunday. Instead, he found immense pride in how his daughter, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, handled the crisis.
“I listened to this several times trying to find a clue. In my head. How did this happen? And wow, she is tough,” Allan Filgueiras said at a press conference on Friday.
“I wanted to be by his side,” he said, sometimes holding back tears. “Inside the plane. To help.”
READ MORE: Parts of plane’s tail found more than a mile from plane crash site in South Florida, official says
In her conversation with air traffic control, Nathalia Filgueiras can first be heard calmly reporting ice buildup on the plane as it flew into a thunderstorm and turbulence threw it up and down 700 feet (200 meters). The situation quickly escalated when the plane fell at breathtaking speed. “Declare an emergency 722-Bravo-Delta. We are on overspeed descending at 20,000 feet per minute!” she said.
Her father and aviation safety experts are impressed that Filgueiras continued to provide updates on what was happening even as she realized the plane’s fate was sealed.
“For the family, it’s like having my heart ripped out of my chest,” his father said in Spanish. “I have to find a way to continue living.”
The family wants to respond to online criticism over whether she had enough experience to be in the cockpit of a high-performance business jet. She had more than 1,300 hours of experience and had completed extensive training to earn her commercial pilot’s license and become certified for a Learjet. The plane’s captain, Jeff Gregory, 55, was reportedly at the controls during the plane’s final minutes of flight.
Thus, on Friday, his father held a press conference which, according to his lawyer, aimed to “preserve not only his memory, but also his reputation”.
“She was at the top of her class in everything she did, and she was perfectly qualified to be a co-pilot on this flight, despite her young age,” attorney Stuart Grossman said, stressing that there were no immediate plans to take legal action over the accident.
It is far too early in the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation to know what caused the crash. When it fell, the Learjet accelerated beyond its design limits and pieces of the plane’s tail were found miles from the crash site.
READ MORE: All 9 people on board plane that crashed in Florida have died, transportation secretary says
Allan Filgueiras said he first took his daughter flying when she was 12 and then began teaching her to fly. After getting a job as a pilot, she told her father she couldn’t believe she was getting paid to do something she loved.
“That was his happiest moment, flying,” he said.
Retired airline pilot John Cox, who is now CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said earlier this week that his career began similarly to Filgueiras’, as he began flying professionally at age 19. He said she was doing pretty well getting that co-pilot seat.
“To be in the right seat of a Lear 60, she had to impress someone, because it’s a good ride. I mean, it’s awesome. I know she loved it,” Cox said.
Her father thinks she handled the crisis better than anyone.
“She showed me what it means to be a hero because once you see it happen, a lot of big boys – military or otherwise – can’t handle it. And she was the one who was there until the last minute fights,” Allan Filgueiras said.
Victims of the crash included tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson; his wife, Helen Sharp; and their two young children, relatives said. The family’s nanny, Ana María Ramírez Cetina, was also killed.
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