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'She was like sunshine': Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras' friend remembers co-pilot killed in Florida Learjet crash
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras' friend Mikaela Schluth remembered the co-pilot killed in the Florida Learjet crash, saying ‘she was like sunshine’.
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Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras was identified as the 20-year-old co-pilot killed in the Florida Learjet crash on Sunday. Now, her friend, Mikaela Schluth, has fondly remembered Filgueiras.
“She was like sunshine, she really was just like the best person to be around,” the friend told CBS News. Filgueiras reportedly made people feel “loved” and “cared about” the friend also detailed. “I am going to miss everything about her, every day,” the late co-pilot's friend mourned.
What Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras's friend said
Schluth went on to detail how hearing about Filgueiras's demise in the crash was “probably the worst thing” she had ever heard, or would hear. “I'm just so proud of how she handled it,” Filgueiras's friend said. Schluth was talking about the co-pilot's communication while the flight was losing altitude.
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She praised how the co-pilot “was able to stay calm and give information up until the last minute.” Filgueiras's friend added that she would miss “spending time” with her the most. The friend noted that the two would work out together and hearing Filgueiras speak about aviation “inspired her so much.”
Schluth called Filgueiras “her biggest inspiration” and said “it was a wonderful experience to fly with her.” She further detailed how they would watch videos of planes taking off during their sleepovers, and recalled how Filgueiras would tell her about each craft. While the friend said she was “heartbroken” at the prospect of life without Filgueiras, she was grateful for the time they had together.
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras got flying license in high school
Filgueiras got her pilot license at 17, while she was still in high school. Her mother The New York Post that she had been working as a commercial pilot for nine months and would have turned 21 in January 2027.
“I wanted her to live her dream, but I knew that her dream was going to be the thing that would take her away from me. I knew that a plane was gonna take her away from me. I always knew it but I was so proud of her. I know she was living her dream,” her mother, Camila, told the publication.
Camila's husband told the publication that the late co-pilot had 1,300 hours of flying experience. Filgueiras was featured in local media when she got her pilot's license at 17, in 2023, even before she had her driver's license. “I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly'," she had told CBS12 at the time.
Filguerias, a West Boca Raton High School senior, had explained how she began pilot lessons in 2020 but was also taught flying by her dad, who learnt it for fun in 2018. Her dream reportedly was to fly as a commercial airline pilot, but she was too young to apply for a job at American Airlines.
She graduated from American Flyers, an Addison, Texas-based flying school which has a branch in Florida. She also began working as an instructor at another school in Fort Lauderdale before she landed another job.
