Professional football player Joe Mixon shared his grief this week after realizing he recently flew on the same Learjet that crashed in South Florida on Sunday, killing all nine people on board.
Mixon, 30, posted a tribute on social media on Tuesday, stating that he was devastated by the tragedy and recalling his own flight on the aircraft just a month earlier with the same flight crew. He described the pilots as incredible professionals and genuinely wonderful people.
The fatal accident involved a Learjet 60 traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas. The aircraft encountered severe weather, with the flight crew requesting a climb to approximately 37,000 feet to escape icing and turbulence. Shortly afterward, the jet entered a steep nosedive, plummeting at a rate of more than 20,000 feet per minute before crashing into a mobile home park in Greenacres, located in Palm Beach County.
Audio recordings from air traffic control captured co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras screaming during radio transmissions moments before impact, while pilot Jeff Gregory could be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer in the final seconds. Ten minutes prior to the disaster, Filgueiras had texted her boyfriend to report severe turbulence and icing conditions.
Mixon specifically honored Filgueiras, a 20-year-old co-pilot whose background had resonated with him. Filgueiras, who grew up in Palm Beach County, gained local attention in October 2023 when she obtained her private pilot’s license at age 17 while still in high school, accomplishing the feat before acquiring a driver’s license. Her family noted that she had been flying commercially for nine months and accumulated 1,300 flight hours. The aircraft’s captain was 55-year-old Jeff Gregory.
Federal investigators and National Transportation Safety Board officials stated that the plane was operating in temperatures reaching minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit and began breaking apart before impact, scattering debris across a half-mile radius. Authorities have not yet determined the exact cause of the rapid descent, nor have they confirmed whether a cockpit voice recorder was on board or if it survived the wreckage.
Among the seven passengers killed were multimillionaire tech executive Adam Robinson, 44, his wife Helen Sharp, and their two young children, four-year-old Emma and two-year-old Charlie. Family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, along with the family nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina, also died in the crash.
Mixon concluded his tribute by reflecting on the fragility of life and offering condolences to the families of all nine victims.
