Families Name the Learjet Passengers: a Couple, Their Children Aged 4 and 2, Their Nanny and Another Couple - and a 20-Year-Old Co-Pilot From Boca Raton
Relatives issued a joint statement Monday identifying the seven passengers killed near Greenacres, while officials said formal identification will take time - and the young co-pilot's sister and the NASA administrator both spoke in her defense.
The families of the people aboard the Learjet 60 that crashed near Greenacres on Sunday have named them themselves. In a joint statement issued Monday, relatives identified the passengers as Adam Robinson, 45, his wife, Helen Sharp, 40, and their children, Emma, 2, and Charlie, 4; the children's nanny, Anita Maria Cetina; and another couple, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, the Palm Beach Post reported. All nine people aboard the Austin-to-Bahamas jet were killed when it struck Military Trail at Cresthaven Boulevard at about 12:50 p.m. on Nov. 1.
"We are deeply grateful to the first responders, investigators, and the Palm Beach County community for their care, and to everyone who has reached out with love," the families wrote, in the statement reported by the Post. "Our hearts are also with the families of the pilots, who are grieving alongside us." County officials were clear on Monday that these are family identifications, not official ones: the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office had not yet officially identified the victims, and County Administrator Joe Abruzzo said formal naming would likely take a long time, citing the need to match DNA.
The co-pilot was Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, who grew up in Palm Beach County and earned her private pilot's license at 17 as a West Boca Raton High School senior, according to her family. Outside her Boca Raton home on Monday, her sister Giulia Filgueiras, 21, said Nathalia "fought until the last moment she could" and had wanted to be a pilot since she was 12. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also defended her on X on Monday, pushing back against online criticism: she was the second-in-command, he wrote, communicating with air traffic controllers right to the end in a terrifying situation, in remarks first published by Florida Today.
The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation continues at the half-mile debris field, and officials have given no timeline for reopening the closed stretch of Military Trail - the road must be repaired and inspected for structural soundness after investigators finish, the Post reported. For Palm Beach County, Monday ended the way it began: with nine names now spoken aloud by the people who loved them, and a community still waiting for the official word.
