Plane pieces were falling off prior to fatal Palm Beach crash, NTSB says

MIAMI — Pieces of the Learjet plane were falling off in the sky before it crashed into a Palm Beach County road Sunday afternoon, killing all nine people on board, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Investigators found the majority of the plane’s left elevator broken into three pieces scattered from around 1.3 to 3.8 miles away from the crash site, National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman told reporters during a Tuesday briefing in Palm Beach County.

The elevator controls the up and down pitch of the aircraft and is located in the aircraft’s tail, Chapman said. If people come across items they believe may be part of the airplane, they are urged not to touch it and contact authorities.

The Learjet 60 pilot, Jeffrey Gregory, and co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, took off from Austin, Texas, at 10:40 a.m. Sunday on their way to Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Gregory, 55, of Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, obtained his airline transport pilot’s license in 2021, according to Federal Aviation Administration airmen records. He had several special certifications including one to operate the Bombardier Learjet 60.

As the plane was descending, a man believed to be Gregory could be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer, according to air traffic controller audio. He is survived by his wife, Cheryl, and their three children, according to social media posts. Gregory’s close friend and colleague, Thomas Noetzel, said “knowing him has made me a better person,” according to a GoFundMe post.

His co-pilot was 20-year-old Filgueiras of Boca Raton, identified by her family. Filgueiras earned her commercial pilot license in March but got her private pilot’s license when she was 17. She told WPEC CBS 12 in 2023 that “some people think it’s weird because I can fly planes, but I can’t drive a car.”

Former NFL star Joe Mixon said on X that he “flew on that exact aircraft last month with those same two pilots. They were incredible professionals and genuinely wonderful people,” the post said. “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.”

The passengers, Texas tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their children Emma, 4, Charlie, 2, the Robinson’s friends Rachel Reed and Charmi Fehr, and the children’s nanny, Anita Maria Cetina, were all killed, too, when the plane crashed off Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North near West Palm Beach.

‘Comes down to judgment’

Sunday’s crash was not a result of unqualified pilots, several airline experts and former commercial pilots said Tuesday. There’s “nothing out there in the public domain questioning their qualifications,” said John Boyd, Jr., principal with the Boyd Company, a Boca Raton-based consulting firm.

But deciding to fly when there were warnings about thunderstorms in South Florida on Sunday did call into question the pilot’s judgment, the experts said.

“I don’t think it comes down to qualifications,” said Justin Crabbe, CEO of Jettly, an online marketplace for private charters, and a commercial pilot for about 20 years. But “it comes down to judgment.”

In Crabbe’s initial assessment, the plane flew into a storm cell. The temperature at its altitude was minus 43 degrees, meaning any moisture introduced onto the plane would freeze.

As the plane picked up warmer air from lower altitudes, the water froze and stuck to the aircraft. Its weight got heavier and that weight overcame the plane’s capabilities. The plane was full of passengers.

“I think the error was thinking: Let’s try to fly through there,” said Crabbe.

Weather remains a key focus of the investigation, the NTSB’s Chapman said Tuesday.

The crew reported experiencing light ice and “moderate” turbulence at 12:47 p.m., and the temperature outside the aircraft was minus 53 degrees Fahrenheit, Chapman said. The jet crashed shortly before 1 p.m. in a residential neighborhood near Greenacres.

The FAA may impose ground stops and restrict airspace, but the agency doesn’t normally do so for weather, said Crabbe. The agency issues forecasts and warnings, but it doesn’t prohibit flights due to weather.

Controllers on the ground are required to monitor airspace. “In the case of this flight, they approved deviations left and right of course, to my understanding,” said Crabbe. But it appeared to him the pilots didn’t elect to deviate or didn’t deviate far enough away from the weather.

Many commercial flights were canceled and delayed across South Florida on Sunday because the weather was so bad. There were around 1,323 delays and 80 cancellations Sunday combined across airports in the region — President Donald J. Trump International Airport in Palm Beach County, Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Retired military pilot and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University associate professor Keith Cianfrani said pilots are taught another cardinal rule early on. Each “Pilot learns rule number one: Never fly into or over a thunderstorm,” said Cianfrani, a former commercial pilot who now runs Florida-based Aviation Safety Consultants.

Archival data from the Aviation Weather Center shows a Significant Meteorological Information warning was in effect at the time of the crash, indicating hazardous in-flight weather such as thunderstorms, hail or other factors. The crew checks the forecast beforehand, receives reports of bad weather while they’re in the air and also has instruments to check the weather, but ultimately it’s up to the pilot to decide how to respond, according to pilots and industry professionals.

“The FAA, the controllers, they can’t force them to do anything,” Cianfrani said. “It’s up to the crew to take that warning and make appropriate action.”

Edward Zebersky, a partner at Miami-based law firm Davis Goldman, wants the investigation to play out but says for now, pilot error and a lack of experience contributed to the crash.

“Just because you have your license doesn’t mean you can fly any aircraft in any situation,” said Zebersky.

Cleanup at site

NTSB team members are working to remove water from the impact crater, so the investigation in and around can begin, Chapman said, adding they expect to find critical airplane components inside the crater. Severe storms on Monday hampered activities, he noted.

No one on the ground was hurt or killed by the crash, but the area remains closed and dozens of residents had to move from their homes because of the debris field and investigation.

Authorities are “very close” to making limited access available for local residents, Chapman said. The NTSB team disaster team is continuing to work with displaced residents.

_____