Investigators are working to determine whether copilot Nathalia Gadelha was flying the Learjet when it crashed in Greenacres, Florida, killing all nine people aboard. (Foto: Instagram)
The National Transportation Safety Board said Nov. 2 that investigators do not yet know whether Nathalia Gadelha, a 20-year-old copilot, was at the controls of the Learjet when it crashed in Florida the previous day. “We don’t know that yet, and it is one of the things we will seek to determine,” investigator Timothy Monville said at a news conference. The investigation will examine whether Gadelha was flying the aircraft or handling radio communications at the time of the crash.
Monville also said investigators have evidence that the aircraft may have begun breaking apart before impact. Thomas Chapman, an NTSB member, said information indicates a cockpit voice recorder had been installed in the Learjet at some point. Investigators do not yet know whether it was still aboard when the plane went down. “We are very hopeful that we can recover it,” Chapman said.
The private jet crashed around 12:50 p.m. local time on Nov. 1 in a mobile home park in Greenacres, in southern Florida. The impact caused a large explosion and a fire that reached at least one residential structure at the site. All nine people aboard the aircraft died.
The jet had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. A recording of the aircraft’s final communications, published by LiveATC, captured the copilot reporting moderate turbulence and trying to find better flying conditions. Gadelha’s family confirmed that the voice on the recording was hers. She was the daughter of Brazilian parents and had worked as a pilot for nine months.
Less than a minute after reporting the turbulence, the copilot declared an emergency using the international distress call “Mayday.” She told air traffic control that the aircraft was descending at 10,000 feet per minute, a rate that later reached 22,000 feet per minute, according to the account of the recording. During the exchange, she warned that the plane was going to hit the ground. About 35 seconds after her first distress call, the final recorded words were, “We’re out of time.”
