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NFL star ‘devastated’ after realizing he flew on doomed Learjet flight with same pilots weeks before crash killed nine
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An NFL star has shared his heartbreak at learning the identities of the two pilots killed in a Learjet crash in Florida, having flown on that plane himself.
As previously reported, nine people were tragically killed on Sunday when a Learjet 60 traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas plummeted to the ground in Florida.
The jet was captured on dashcam footage hurtling nose-first to the ground, where it exploded into a fireball and left a large crater in its wake.
All on board were killed instantly, and have been named as pilot Jeff Gregory, 55, co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, and passengers Adam Robinson, 44, who was a multimillionaire tech exec, his wife Helen Sharp, their two young children - Emma, four, and Charlie, two - and their nanny, Anita Maria Apellido, and their friends, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.
Two-time Pro Bowl running back Joe Mixon, 30, took to social media after the pilots' identities were confirmed to reveal that he had flown on that very same plane with Gregory and Filgueiras just weeks before the tragedy.
He wrote on X (formerly Twitter): "Absolutely devastated by yesterday’s tragic plane crash in Florida and the loss of all nine lives.
"I flew on that exact aircraft last month with those same two pilots. They were incredible professionals and genuinely wonderful people.
"Hearing the young woman’s story and learning about the bright future she had ahead of her makes it even more heartbreaking that her life was cut so short."
Mixon added: "My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to the grieving families and loved ones of everyone on board.
"A tragic reminder of how fragile life is. Love on your loved ones while you can, because you never know what tomorrow may bring."
Filgueiras, who grew up in Palm Beach County, had made local headlines in 2023 after she earned her private pilot's license at just 17 years old, before she even had a driver's license and while she was still in high school.
She had been flying commercially for nine months and had logged 1,300 flying hours, her family told the New York Post.
Heartbreaking audio recordings between the plane and ATC were released after the tragedy, in which Filgueiras was heard reporting that they were experiencing icing and turbulence, asking to climb to around 37,000 feet to get above the bad weather shortly before the plane nosedived at a rate of over 20,000 feet per minute.
Filgueiras's scream could be heard on the audio recording as Captain Gregory could also be heard reciting the Lord's Prayer as they tried everything they could to control the plane before it crashed into the grounds of a mobile home park in Palm Beach County.
The young pilot had also sent a text to her boyfriend, Justin, just 10 minutes before her death, saying: "I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice."
Federal investigators are working to determine what caused the jet to crash, with the National Transportation Safety Board saying at a news conference that the plane had begun to break apart before impact, scattering debris across a half-mile radius.
Work is also underway to determine if the plane had a cockpit voice recorder or black box, and whether they survived the impact.