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All nine people killed in Florida Learjet crash have been identified
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The nine people killed when a Learjet 60 crashed into a mobile home park in Palm Beach County on Sunday have been identified, and the passenger list is as devastating as the footage of the crash itself.
Austin-based tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 44, was on board with his wife Helen Sharp, their four-year-old daughter Emma, and their two-year-old son Charlie.
The family was travelling with their nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina, and two close friends, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr. None survived.
The crew consisted of 55-year-old captain Jeff Gregory and 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, who had texted her boyfriend about icing and turbulence just 10 minutes before the aircraft went down.
All nine were killed. There were no survivors.
The Robinson family
A statement released by the families confirmed the identities and the scale of the loss.
"With broken hearts, our families share that Adam Robinson and Helen Sharp, their children Emma and Charlie, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, and Anita Maria Apellido Cetina were among those lost aboard the flight that went down near Greenacres, Florida, on November 1."
"Adam and Helen were devoted parents, and Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, were the light of their lives."
Robinson graduated from Rice University in Houston and built a career in the Austin tech industry. The family were travelling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas for what appears to have been a private trip. Their two young children, their nanny, and two of their closest friends were with them.
Details about memorial services will be shared once arrangements are made, the family said.
The crew
Captain Jeff Gregory, 55, was at the controls. Little has been publicly reported about him beyond his age and his role as pilot in command.
His co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, was 20 years old.
She earned her pilot's license at 17, while still in high school, and had been working as a commercial pilot for nine months. Her stepfather told the New York Post she had logged 1,300 hours of flying experience and had texted her boyfriend roughly 10 minutes before the crash saying: "I've got turbulence, I've got ice."
Filgueiras grew up in Palm Beach County. She once featured in a local news story about getting her license before graduating high school and joked about being able to fly a plane before she could legally drive a car.
What the NTSB has confirmed
At a news conference on Monday, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed that ice began forming on the jet in the middle of moderate turbulence during the flight.
The crew requested permission to increase altitude from 35,000 feet to 37,000 feet shortly before declaring an emergency. Higher altitude can sometimes help escape icing conditions, though it also puts the aircraft closer to its performance ceiling where the margin for error narrows significantly.
Air traffic control recordings released via LiveATC captured the final 35 seconds of communication from the cockpit. The crew reported an 'overspeed condition' and a descent rate that reached 22,000 feet per minute. The final transmission was: "We're going to crash into the ground, 722 Bravo Delta." The last words heard from the cockpit were: "We're out of time."
The crash
Dashcam footage from Military Trail, credited to Aki Kuusisto, captured the moment the jet struck the ground near the entrance to a mobile home park in Greenacres at approximately 1 PM ET on Sunday. The fireball on impact was enormous. A crater was left in the road. At least one mobile home was destroyed. A burst water pipe flooded the site. Power outages spread across the neighbourhood. Approximately 600 residents were evacuated.
No one on the ground was killed.
The Lenny Kravitz rumour
A rumour circulated online on Sunday evening that musician Lenny Kravitz had been on the flight. TMZ confirmed he was not on the aircraft and was not connected to the crash in any way. The rumour appears to have started because the flight was heading to the Bahamas, where Kravitz owns a home.
Nine people
Adam Robinson, 44. Helen Sharp. Emma Robinson, 4. Charlie Robinson, 2. Anita Maria Apellido Cetina. Rachael Reed. Charmi Fehr. Jeff Gregory, 55. Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20.
A family on their way to the Bahamas with their nanny, their friends, and a crew of two. A four-year-old and a two-year-old in the cabin. A 20-year-old in the right seat who got her pilot's license before she finished school. A captain who has barely been mentioned in any of the coverage because the story of the youngest person in the cockpit and the youngest people in the cabin has overtaken everything else.
The FAA and NTSB investigations are ongoing.