Learjet Crash Kills Nine

A business jet carrying nine people crashed in Florida on Sunday, killing everyone aboard, after the aircraft encountered severe weather and ice accumulation during a flight to the Bahamas.

The Learjet 60, operated by Upper Jets, departed from Austin, Texas, and struck the ground in Greenacres, a community roughly seven miles southwest of West Palm Beach. The impact created a crater and scattered debris across a wide area before the plane burst into flames.

Jeff Gregory, 55, was the pilot. He lived in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. FAA records show he held airline transport pilot and flight instructor certificates. He had previously worked for a charter company in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and for East Coast Jets, Inc. in 2016 and 2017.

Gregory’s co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, was 20. In her final radio transmissions to air traffic control, she reported that ice was building up on the aircraft and that the plane was moving violently. She described the turbulence as throwing the jet up and down by more than 700 feet. In the background of those transmissions, a man’s voice recited the Lord’s Prayer. Friends believe the voice belonged to Gregory, a devout Christian.

Filgueiras screamed, “We’re going to die!” before the jet hit the ground. A federal investigator noted on Monday that parts of the jet likely detached before impact. Images taken shortly before the crash show the horizontal stabilizer missing from the tail.

Thomas Noetzel, director of operations at Upper Jets, started an online fundraiser to help Gregory’s wife and children. Noetzel described Gregory as a close friend who was a “devoted, conscientious, and deeply faithful man.” Walter Noetzel, Thomas’s father, posted on Facebook that he believed Gregory was “soaring peacefully in the presence of our Lord.”

The victims included technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, and their two young children, according to relatives. About 600 residents near the crash site remain displaced, though only one person was reported injured on the ground.

Tom Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said weather will be a central focus of the investigation. A preliminary report is expected in about a month. Determining the final cause of the crash will likely take more than a year. Filgueiras’ stepfather said she texted her boyfriend about 10 minutes before the crash to report turbulence and ice. The FAA allows charter pilots to use cellphones during cruise flight, provided their company does not ban it.