An airline pilot has revealed why a Palm Beach jet death spiral could happen to a commercial flight.
By HARRIET ALEXANDER, US SENIOR FEATURES WRITER and STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Published: 20:34 EDT, 2 November 2026 | Updated: 14:48 EDT, 3 November 2026
It was shortly before 12.48pm on Sunday when the mundane-seeming request to Miami Route Air Traffic Control came in.
The Learjet crew reported 'light, clear ice that is manageable,' adding that the nine people on board were experiencing 'moderate turbulence.' The two pilots, hoping to skirt the choppy air, asked ATC about 'better rides.'
The pilots can be heard requesting permission to climb to 37,000ft, to avoid the turbulence. The staff at ATC in Miami reply: 'Roger. Climb and maintain.' But a smoother path was never found
The plane begins briefly climbing, before it plummets.
The Learjet hurtles down at a rate of 8,000ft a minute, a pace that only quickens.
'Mayday, mayday!' yells one of the two pilots. 'We're descending 10,000 feet per minute!'
There is nothing that ATC can do. The pilots then say they are nosediving to the ground, descending 'in an over-speed condition' and falling 20,000 feet a minute.
'I'm here with you, talk to me,' ATC says, but it is impossible.
At 12.50pm on Sunday, the plane plunged nose-first into a highway, bursting into an enormous fireball and killing all on board
Miraculously no one on the ground was harmed, but the images of the plane diving into the highway, recorded by cars passing by, are hard to forget
At 12.50pm the plane plunged nose-first into a highway, bursting into an enormous fireball and killing all on board immediately.
Blurry photos of the aircraft heading towards the moment of impact suggest that perhaps the horizontal stabilizer, which sits at 90 degrees to the tail fin, has been sheared off the plane – but without the full black box data recordings and subsequent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report, it is not possible to know.
Miraculously no one on the ground was killed, but the images of the plane diving into the highway, recorded by cars passing by, are hard to forget. They will be seized on by investigators.
Of course the question on everyone's minds is: How did this fatal crash happen and could it happen on a larger aircraft – even a commercial flight?
As a pilot with one of America's largest airlines who has also flown Learjets, Julian Alarcon, 38, understands the challenges, and risks, of both types of aircraft. The founder of his own flight school, Aviator NYC, Alarcon said he didn't want to 'Monday morning quarterback' the crash before publication of the full NTSB report, which usually takes over a year to compile and will provide specific details and allow full analysis.
But he said: 'There is a classic saying in aviation: "There are old pilots, and bold pilots, but you never find an old, bold pilot."'
The plane, a Bombardier Learjet 60, took off from Austin, Texas, at 10.37am on Sunday, and headed to the island of North Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, was flying the plane with Captain Jeff Gregory, 55
Jeff Gregory was the pilot in command of the Learjet headed to the Bahamas on Sunday
The captain of the flight, 55-year-old Jeff Gregory, an experienced pilot from Pennsylvania, and his co-pilot, 20-year-old Nathalia Filgueiras, were transporting Texan tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 44; his wife Helen Sharp, 40; their two children and nanny; and two friends.
Alarcon said Filgueiras' age was not of concern: insurers would be more interested in confirming that she had the necessary hours of flying experience to handle a powerful plane like the Learjet.
According to Filgueiras's mother, Camila Corteleti, she obtained her pilot's license at the age of 17 and had logged more than 1,300 hours of flying time, significantly more than the 40-hour FAA minimum.
She had worked for the charter company Upper Jets for nine months and had experience flying Learjets, which Alarcon described as a sports car of a private jet, and often the plane of choice for deep-pocketed corporate executives because it's fast and can transport its passengers much quicker than other planes.
The three-hour journey from Texas to the Bahamas was apparently progressing as planned until arriving above Florida and encountering storms.
Now, the Daily Mail has been told, that a terrifying 'hidden' thunderstorm rapidly grew into the jet's flight path. According to meteorologist Ryan Hall, radar has revealed a quickly growing storm concealed beneath a broad canopy of cloud along the aircraft's route.
Learjets can fly at altitudes of up to 51,000ft – significantly higher than the 39-41,000ft maximum of most commercial airlines. So the pilots might try and go above the storms, in a way that a commercial airline pilot could not. Indeed the plane had been cleared to climb shortly before its fatal descent.
Hall observed: 'On the flight data it looks like a smooth, steady cruise. For about six minutes straight, the jet holds 35,000 feet within about 75 feet.'
But, Hall said, 'waiting for it on the eastern side of the state' was a cluster of thunderstorms gathering and breaking over Palm Beach County.
'South Florida is loaded with moisture,' he said. 'And there was even a flood watch in effect. And that's the kind of air where storms can just pop up, they shoot straight up, and they shoot up fast.'
A weather balloon over Miami captured data on Sunday morning showing storms could reach up to 44,000 feet putting them well within range of the beleaguered jet.
Alarcon said he explains to his students that flying through a storm is like experiencing a drop of water boil and evaporate. It rises, then cools, freezes, and drops down again. That shifting air creates turbulence – a rollercoaster effect, whereby passengers are flung up and down, side to side as the plane passes through the air pockets.
'That is also part of why we, as airliners, stay away from it because it's just too uncomfortable for passengers,' he said.
'Even with just a little bit of turbulence, people get really afraid. And one of the core principals at the airlines is caring and comfort, and it makes people very uncomfortable going through the storms.'
According to Filgueiras's mother, Camila Corteleti, she obtained her pilot's license at the age of 17 and had logged more than 1,300 hours of flying time, significantly more than the 40-hour FAA minimum
Texan tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 45 was on his way to the Bahamas with his wife Helen Sharp, 40; their two children and nanny; and two friends
Charter and private jets nowadays have access to the same radar weather information as commercial airliners, Alarcon said – provided there was WiFi on the plane to receive the updates.
However, unlike commercial planes, on which 'teams of thousands' work around the clock – large numbers of ground crew, maintenance teams, dispatchers and analysts – private jets are reliant on a small number of people.
In addition, the data from the ground they'd be receiving would be delayed by about five to ten minutes: enough time, Alarcon said, for a storm to have significantly shifted in location and intensity – especially a 'rapidly growing cell' as Hall has suggested.