Latest / The Front / Learjet 60 crash: The incredible composure of 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Filgueiras

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Learjet 60 crash: The incredible composure of 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Filgueiras · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, November 4, 2026.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Misogyny and homophobia online are bigger drivers of radicalisation than religion.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: That's the hugely controversial take from the Australian Human Rights Commission,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: which puts it at odds with police and terrorism experts.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: That's an exclusive live now at theaustralian.com.au. What would it
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: be like to be inside a plane plunging to the ground?
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: We have a stunning insight inside the cockpit of a
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: doomed private jet as a young co-pilot talks to air
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  Speaker 2: traffic controllers who are forced to listen as she and
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  Speaker 2: eight others slam into the ground. What went wrong in
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: what should have been a joyful holiday flight? Why did
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  Speaker 2: the plane crash? And does the audio and video reshape
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  Speaker 2: the way we think about flying? Robin Ironside is the
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  Speaker 2: Australian's aviation writer and I've called her in to talk
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  Speaker 2: me through the most unbelievable audio and video I've ever
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  Speaker 2: seen of a plane crashing. Robin, this is the Bombardier
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  Speaker 2: Learjet 60 that crashed in Florida on the 1st of November,
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  Speaker 2: killing nine people. Let's just talk about the final moments
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  Speaker 2: of those people's lives. We see them slam into the
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  Speaker 2: road as a driver is going past the driver and
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  Speaker 2: only narrowly escapes death. And what intrigues me about it
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  Speaker 2: is how fast this plane is going and that it
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  Speaker 2: seems to be flying into the ground rather than what
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  Speaker 2: I thought a plane crash would look like.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe I thought it would be.
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  Speaker 2: Tumbling or coasting. It is heading nose down into the tarmac.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think is going on there?
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  Speaker 1: And were you surprised by that?
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  Speaker 3: It's certainly very confronting footage to watch. I've seen some
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  Speaker 3: experts describe that aircraft as a flying dart. And I
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  Speaker 3: think that's probably accurate. I mean, it certainly looked like that.
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  Speaker 3: The way it speared into the ground at such speed
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  Speaker 3: with such force, it left a significant crater, like it
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  Speaker 3: lifted up chunks of bitumen. and left that huge hole
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  Speaker 3: in the ground. It's awful.
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  Speaker 2: Can anything be recovered from that crash scene that would
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  Speaker 2: be useful to investigators?
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  Speaker 3: We're still waiting to hear if they have been able
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  Speaker 3: to recover the black box recorders, which will be very
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  Speaker 3: helpful to investigators to understand what exactly happened with that aircraft.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, there has been speculation that as a result
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  Speaker 3: of flying into a storm cell the horizontal stabilizer broke
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  Speaker 3: off and the only way was down.
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  Speaker 1: So air traffic control recordings have been released, Robin, and
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  Speaker 1: they're also very confronting.
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  Speaker 2: We hear the co-pilot, Natalia Filgueras, who was 20 years old,
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  Speaker 2: although her family says she got her pilot's licence when
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  Speaker 2: she was 17. Really revealing a bit of a chilling sequence. First,
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  Speaker 2: she reports some moderate turbulence and what she says is
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  Speaker 2: manageable icing at 35,000 feet. And she's asking air traffic
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  Speaker 2: control for something. What do you think is going on there?
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  Speaker 1: What's she asking for? She's asking, I guess, for a
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  Speaker 1: path around the storm activity because certainly the flight radar
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  Speaker 1: images show a massive.
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  Speaker 2: Sort of.
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  Speaker 3: Storm over a lot of the United States. And up
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  Speaker 3: until just before the descent, I mean, they had done
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  Speaker 3: extremely well to avoid the red part of the storm
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  Speaker 3: activity and to sort of skirt the fringes of it.
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  Speaker 1: You can expect that to rise ahead. Roger, it's your
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  Speaker 1: Bravo Delta.
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  Speaker 2: And now we're picking up precipitation.
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  Speaker 3: We need to climb 350. Unfortunately, as a result of
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  Speaker 3: asking to go up higher, they seem to go straight
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  Speaker 3: into a very severe storm. And that's thought to be
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  Speaker 3: what perhaps resulted in part of the aircraft breaking up
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  Speaker 3: and resulted in that descent.
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  Speaker 2: Right. So she asked air traffic control if they can
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  Speaker 2: go up. The air traffic control essentially says yes. and
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  Speaker 2: says to her that she's going to get an easier
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  Speaker 2: ride or a smoother ride from here on. So they ascend,
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  Speaker 2: and then suddenly things obviously go wrong very quickly, but
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't seem to be clear to her that something
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  Speaker 2: has broken off the plane or that there's an issue
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  Speaker 2: with the plane itself. She asks or declares a mayday.
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  Speaker 1: 722 Bravo Delta, we're descending 8,000, mayday, mayday, we're descending
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  Speaker 1: 10,000 feet per minute. And then it sounds like there's
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  Speaker 1: an extreme, like uncontrolled descent going on. Is that what
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  Speaker 1: the loss of that part would do? Well, yes, that's
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  Speaker 1: my understanding of it on an aircraft like the Lear 60,
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  Speaker 1: which is unusual.
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  Speaker 2: In that it has very thin wings.
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  Speaker 3: Wings and they're very sensitive to things like icing, which
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  Speaker 3: can result in destabilization. And that combined, I think, with
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  Speaker 3: the loss of something like the horizontal stabilizer would certainly
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  Speaker 3: disrupt the aerodynamics of that aircraft to the extent that
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  Speaker 3: it was placed into a nosedive. I mean, you hear
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  Speaker 3: that in the air traffic control audio, that the rate
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  Speaker 3: of the dive just seems to be getting faster and faster,
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  Speaker 3: 10,000 feet. 20,000 feet, it's harrowing listening.
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  Speaker 2: Eventually it gets to what seems like what's been reported
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  Speaker 2: as 32,000 feet per minute. I mean, I struggle to
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  Speaker 2: even comprehend that. How would that compare to the normal
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  Speaker 2: rate of descent of a plane that we're used to
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  Speaker 2: being on?
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  Speaker 3: Well, usually the rate of descent is very gentle. It's
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  Speaker 3: something like between 1,000, 1,500 feet a minute. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's very gentle and a lot of passengers, other than
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  Speaker 3: the ears popping, probably barely even notice it. So it's
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  Speaker 3: sort of unimaginable what that would be like. And you
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  Speaker 3: can see that from the footage, just how fast that
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  Speaker 3: aircraft is going, how quickly the end happens.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to crash into the ground, 732 Bravo Delta.
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  Speaker 1: November 2, Bravo Delta, I'm here with you. Talk to me.
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  Speaker 1: We are descending 22,000 feet, and we are banking 60 degrees.
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  Speaker 3: November 2, Bravo Delta, roger.
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  Speaker 1: Look outside, Jack!
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  Speaker 2: Look outside!
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  Speaker 1: Holy f * * *, we're out of time.
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  Speaker 2: The investigators have already said that the debris has been
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  Speaker 2: spread over a wide area on the ground and that's
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  Speaker 2: I think one of the reasons why they think it
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  Speaker 2: might have broken apart in the air before the ground impact.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think there's any possibility that in the last
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  Speaker 2: sort of few seconds of silence before the plane crashes
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  Speaker 2: and after we hear the last words from the young
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  Speaker 2: co-pilot that they were all still alive? Is there any
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  Speaker 2: doubt that they would have all been alive as the
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  Speaker 2: plane went into the ground?
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  Speaker 3: It's almost too awful to contemplate. Certainly there's been talk
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  Speaker 3: about the G-forces inside the aircraft when it was descending
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  Speaker 3: at that rate. I mean, I'd like to think perhaps
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  Speaker 3: they were unconscious, but, yeah, given the conversations with the
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  Speaker 3: air traffic control quite late into the flight, you can
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  Speaker 3: only imagine that perhaps those on board had a pretty
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  Speaker 3: good idea of what was happening. Look outside, Jack! Look outside!
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  Speaker 1: Holy f * * *, we're out of time!
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  Speaker 2: Whoa! Many of us can only imagine ever going on
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  Speaker 2: a private jet, but I think passengers might assume that
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  Speaker 2: going on a private jet is a bit like going
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  Speaker 2: on a commercial airliner, that the safety regulations, the experience
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  Speaker 2: of the pilots and so on would be pretty much
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  Speaker 2: the same.
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  Speaker 1: Is that right?
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  Speaker 2: Well, yes.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, they're all covered by the same air safety
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  Speaker 3: regulations as any aircraft, and they are expected to keep
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  Speaker 3: up with their maintenance, have well-experienced pilots. Some would say
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  Speaker 3: they are expected to even achieve a higher level of
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  Speaker 3: safety given that the people flying on them are paying
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  Speaker 3: significant amounts of money to be carried, in this instance,
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  Speaker 3: from Austin to the Bahamas. I'm sure they would have
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  Speaker 3: been paying a significant amount to fly and fly safely
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  Speaker 3: to their destination.
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  Speaker 2: Let's talk about Natalia Filgueras-Robin. She's talking to the pilot.
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  Speaker 2: It sounds to me as though she might be the
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  Speaker 2: pilot navigator who is talking to air traffic control and
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  Speaker 2: she's responsible for comms, while the other pilot, the pilot
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  Speaker 2: is actually.
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  Speaker 1: Flying the plane. Is that your sense of it too?
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  Speaker 2: And what do you make of the way she kept
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  Speaker 2: up those communications as the plane went down?
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  Speaker 3: I find it extraordinary that she was so calm, as
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  Speaker 3: was the air traffic controller. I mean, right up to
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  Speaker 3: those final moments when it was clear that they weren't
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  Speaker 3: going to survive this incident. It was pretty incredible, really,
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  Speaker 3: that she could continue to keep calling out those altitude,
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  Speaker 3: those speed readings.
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  Speaker 1: And keep the air.
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  Speaker 3: Traffic controller informed about what was happening on board the aircraft.
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  Speaker 2: Her family says that Natalia Filagueras had 1,300 hours of
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  Speaker 2: flying experience, that she'd learned to fly before she could drive.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think about that?
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  Speaker 2: And given that she was not actually flying the plane,
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  Speaker 2: that she was sitting next to the pilot, is that
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  Speaker 2: enough for someone who's got the lives of family in
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  Speaker 2: their hands? Yes.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we don't know a lot about the pilot flying.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, there is always a pilot flying, a pilot monitoring.
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  Speaker 3: In this case, she was the pilot monitoring. She wasn't
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  Speaker 3: actually flying the plane. We haven't heard a lot about
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  Speaker 3: the pilot flying, what his experience was, how many hours
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  Speaker 3: he had clocked up. I mean, 1,300 hours is certainly
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  Speaker 3: a reasonable amount. And I don't think that should be discounted.
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  Speaker 3: It's pretty awful. Some of the commentary on social media about,
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  Speaker 3: you know, because it was a woman pilot, they were doomed.
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  Speaker 3: It was quite, you know, disgusting to hear things like that.
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  Speaker 3: She sounded like she was a competent pilot just listening
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  Speaker 3: to the way she was, you know, so calm right
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  Speaker 3: up until probably the last 45 seconds. Yeah, I think
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  Speaker 3: that spoke volumes about her professionalism and the fact that
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  Speaker 3: she was a fairly experienced pilot despite her very young age.
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  Speaker 1: November 2, Bravo Delta, Miami, how do you hear? November 541,
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  Speaker 1: Quebec Sierra, contact Miami Center, 126.32. November 632, 541 Quebec Sierra.
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  Speaker 2: November 722, Bravo Delta, how do you hear? November 722,
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  Speaker 2: Bravo Delta.
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  Speaker 1: Southwest 918, did you get anything back?
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  Speaker 2: No, of course not. You've covered the aftermath of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of crashes. I mean, what's your instinct about this one?
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  Speaker 2: Do you think there's going to be revealed to be
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  Speaker 2: some potentially.
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  Speaker 1: Problem with this slightly older style of aircraft? Or do
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  Speaker 1: you think there'll be some sort of pilot error? Or
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  Speaker 1: will this just be an unavoidable mistake?
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  Speaker 3: Well, usually with aircraft incidents, they say a Swiss cheese
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  Speaker 3: model applies. And in the event of plane crashes, it's
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  Speaker 3: when basically all the holes line up. So it's not
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  Speaker 3: usually just one thing. It's usually a number of things
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  Speaker 3: that unfortunately align to create a circumstance in which an
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  Speaker 3: aircraft crashes. So in this case, it seems to be
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  Speaker 3: a combination of the weather, perhaps the aircraft design to
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  Speaker 3: a certain extent, and I guess maybe the choices that
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  Speaker 3: were made in terms of the path of the aircraft.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure that's They're the things that the investigators will
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  Speaker 3: be looking at, maintenance records, pilot experience, as well as
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  Speaker 3: the weather, all of those things that will help explain
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  Speaker 3: what happened.
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  Speaker 2: I definitely feel safer the bigger the aircraft is. It's
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  Speaker 2: not an option for me to fly in private jets anyway.
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  Speaker 1: Is that true?
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  Speaker 2: Are you safer on a gigantic kind of commercial airliner
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  Speaker 2: than you are on a smaller aircraft?
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  Speaker 3: Well, certainly commercial jet airliners have an extremely low level
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  Speaker 3: of accidents or they have a very low accident rate.
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  Speaker 3: In Australia, there hasn't been a commercial jet airliner crash ever.
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  Speaker 3: And in America, unfortunately, in the last couple of years,
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  Speaker 3: we have seen a couple of sad occurrences. At the
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: beginning of last year, there was that awful mid-air collision
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: involving a jet and a And then there was the
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: UPS cargo flight that crashed in Louisville in July last
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  Speaker 3: year that was also incredibly confronting, harrowing footage. So they
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  Speaker 3: do happen, but they are extremely rare given the hundreds
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: of thousands of aircraft movements that take place every week.
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  Speaker 1: Now we can see what it's like too.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, this is something that previously we've only really
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  Speaker 2: ever seen the aftermath of crashes, haven't we? A field
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  Speaker 2: of debris or a hole in the ground or a
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  Speaker 2: charred kind of shell of a fuselage. Do you think
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: it'll change people's sort of perceptions of flying now that
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  Speaker 2: we see what it actually looks like when these flights
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  Speaker 2: end like this?
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  Speaker 3: I think anyone who is a nervous flyer would be
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: terrified by this footage, given that it's pretty much viral.
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  Speaker 2: It's everywhere.
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  Speaker 3: It's on every social media. It's hard to avoid, as
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  Speaker 3: is the air traffic control audio. Despite warnings, I'm sure
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people are listening to it and finding
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  Speaker 3: it completely harrowing. And yes, I do think it will
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  Speaker 3: concern a lot of people. I mean, typically, aviation is
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: very safe. It's safer to fly than it is to
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  Speaker 3: drive a car. So I guess people have to keep
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  Speaker 3: that in the back of their minds. that they are
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  Speaker 3: typically safer in an aircraft, especially in countries like the US,
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  Speaker 3: like Australia, where air safety regulation is very strict.
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  Speaker 1: Robyn Ironside, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks, Claire. Robin Ironside is The Australian's aviation writer. You
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: can check out all Robin's work anytime