The doomed Learjet co-pilot heard pleading for help in harrowing air traffic control audio before the fiery Florida crash has been identified as Nathalia Gadelha – a 20-year-old who got her pilot license while still in high school.
Gadelha’s mother, Camila, and her stepfather confirmed to The Post that she was the co-pilot flying a Learjet 60 from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it entered a steep nosedive – plummeting at over 20,000 feet per minute – and smashed into the ground in Palm Beach County on Sunday afternoon.
The slow-motion of Learjet accident in Florida.
If you watch it with the audio synced to the public flight data, she says that when they hit 10,000 feet. She says "we’re out of ten" which is a common pilot term. She’s saying they just blew through ten thousand, which at their rate of descent is critically low.
She was relaying to ATC her ever increasing rate of descent, even her angle of bank. She knew exactly what her altitude was.
The last report she gave was that she was descending at over 20,000 feet/minute.
Process that: nearly 4 miles a minute straight down. She was hyper aware of her orientation, descent rate, etc.
They were decending into a thunderstorm. Violent winds caused them to go into a high speed stall while in a 60 degree bank which caused an overspeed condition where essentially they started moving so fast that their control surfaces were useless.
There is absolutely no wreckage around that crater. Everything was obliterated. Brutal.
They are all screaming and yelling how they;re going to die and they are out of time, then complete silence.
We all fear our mortality. I would rather go out instantaneously over a drawn out disease or something that forces you to recognize your death for days and days.
These poor souls were petrified for seconds. Not days like cancer or something along those lines.
A full minute to see death rushing towards you knowing there was nothing you can do to stop it. Thinking about all the things you’ll never be able to do, loved ones you’ll never be able to hold again, regrets you can never fix. All with simultaneous, overwhelming, absolute terror. The moment of death may have been quick, but the rest of it was not quick at all.
Not only that but trying to also think critically to try and save your life, trying to dig deep into your training. Panicking even more. Then realizing it’s getting to where it’s too late. More panic. Boom. Sad to think about.
— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) November 2, 2026
