Florida aircraft crash pilot ‘went residence to be with the Lord’ as ‘reliable dad’ pictured
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Captain Jeffrey Gregory has been identified as the pilot behind the controls of the Florida plane crash that claimed the lives of nine people on Sunday
Captain Jeffrey Gregory has been pictured for the first time since the crash
The pilot heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer in the final moments before a Learjet plunged more than 300mph to the ground has been named and pictured for the first time.
Captain Jeffrey Gregory, 55, was among nine people killed when the aircraft crashed into a residential street in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday. A church tribute said Jeffrey “went home to be with the Lord when the plane he was flying crashed”.
The experienced aviator, who leaves behind his wife Cheryl, 53, and their older children, was remembered as a devoted family man whose passion for flying began when he was young.
Witnesses described the plane going down ‘like a missile’(Image: X)
His childhood friend and former neighbour David Peters told The U.S. Sun that Limerick Chapel in Pennsylvania, where they both grew up attending church, sent an email paying tribute to Jeffrey following his death.
Peters said their parents both worked at the church and the pair attended a small Christian school, lived as neighbours and later worked together locally. He described Jeffrey as “very diligent and dependable,” recalling his ambition to become a pilot and how he “loved wearing his leather bomber jacket”.
Peters added: “I know he worked hard to become a pilot and it was something he truly loved and poured his life and heart into.” Jeffrey went on to build a decades-long career in aviation.
A dashcam captured the horror moment the plane crashed into the busy road(Image: Aki Kuusisto via Storyful / AP)
FAA records obtained by the outlet show he received an Airline Transport Pilot certificate on October 1, 2021, with ratings for several jet types, including the Learjet 60. His certificate carried no pilot-in-command restriction for the LR-60, although a separate LR-JET rating did have such a limitation. He also held a First Class medical certificate dated June 2026.
Jeffrey is believed to have been flying the aircraft, with his co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, handling radio communications. Young aviators often take on monitoring duties aboard smaller jets while building flight hours. Filgueiras was heard making increasingly desperate calls for help as the aircraft lost control.
The Learjet had been carrying tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 45, his wife Helen Sharp, 40, their children Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, two close friends and their nanny. The family was travelling from Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas when the disaster unfolded.
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, was handling radio communications in the plane(Image: THREADS)
Robinson’s relatives confirmed the identities of the family, friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, and nanny Anita Maria Apellido Cetina in a statement released Monday. The statement read: “Adam and Helen were devoted parents, and Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, were the light of their lives.
“Helen and Adam were the love affair that will last forever. Their warmth, generosity and gift for making people feel welcome touched so many lives. Their loss will be felt deeply by all those who loved them and who they loved in return.”
The statement continued: “Charmi and Rachel were full of joy and adventure. They loved their people fiercely, fully and without hesitation. From the moment they met, they were all in on each other and the life they were building. They are deeply loved, and we will miss them endlessly.
Adam Robinson, his wife Helen, and their children Emma and Charlie pose in a family photo(Image: Instagram/@whit.mcguire)
“Anita Maria cared for Emma and Charlie with tenderness and devotion, and she was truly part of the family. She showed us a legacy of unconditional love and devotion.”
The family asked for privacy as they grieved. Helen’s father, Dudley Sharp, 70, also confirmed his daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren had died. “We had a daughter, her husband and two grandchildren on the plane,” he told The Palm Beach Post.
Social media accounts indicate Helen was a potter who owned a public relations company, while Robinson founded a software business and posted on LinkedIn shortly before the crash.
Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr were among those killed(Image: Rachael Reed/Facebook)
The Learjet plunged almost 27,000 feet in less than a minute before smashing into a residential road at around 12.50pm. The impact created a huge crater, sparked a fireball and sent thick black smoke into the sky. Debris damaged nearby homes and forced around 600 residents to evacuate.
Resident Anthony Blackmon told NBC affiliate WTVJ that debris hit his house and everything, including the road, was on fire. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the aircraft’s descent as looking like “a missile going down”.
At a news conference on Monday, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed ice had begun forming on the aircraft amid moderate turbulence. The crew had requested permission to climb from 35,000 feet to 37,000 feet shortly before declaring an emergency.
Anita Maria Apellido Cetina was identified as the family’s nanny(Image: Family Handout)
Filgueiras then issued a mayday call, saying: “We are in an overspeed condition, descending 20,000ft per minute.” She later pleaded for help again: “We’re descending 8,000 – mayday, mayday – we’re descending 10,000ft per minute.”
As the aircraft continued its terrifying descent, cockpit audio captured her screaming: “We’re going to crash into the ground.” She added before falling silent: “Holy f*** we’re out of time.”
Filgueiras’ mother, Camila Corteleti, confirmed to the New York Post that her daughter was aboard the twin-engine jet. Her stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, said she had accumulated 1,300 flight hours.
The aftermath has been devastating(Image: AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A Palm Beach County native, Filgueiras earned her private pilot’s licence aged 17 in October 2023 while attending West Boca Raton High School. She began Ground School in 2020, encouraged by her father, who started recreational flying in 2018.
By the time she qualified, she had completed 88 flight hours and passed the required aviation knowledge examination. Her training was funded by the Palm Beach County School District’s Aviation Academy.
Meanwhile, former pilot Martin Varsavsky has suggested severe weather could have contributed to the loss of control. He raised the possibility of coffin corner, a dangerous high-altitude aerodynamic condition where an aircraft’s minimum safe speed approaches its maximum operating speed, leaving pilots with little room to manoeuvre.
This graphic shows the course of the flight until horror struck(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
Varsavsky speculated the jet may have attempted to climb above two storm systems before encountering dangerous atmospheric conditions, comparing the possibility with previous disasters including Air France Flight 447 in 2009. However, investigators have not established weather, pilot error or coffin corner as the cause.
False online claims that musician Lenny Kravitz was aboard the aircraft were also quickly dismissed by his representative, who told BocaNewsNow the reports were “untrue and incorrect”. The NTSB investigation continues as officials work to establish exactly what happened during the jet’s final moments.
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