Family of four, two close friends and nanny also died in crash as pilot identified as 55-year-old Jeff Gregory
Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, was co-pilot of the private Learjet 60 en route from Austin-Bergstrom international airport in Texas to North Eleuthera airport in the Bahamas on Sunday when it suddenly plummeted out of the sky, killing all onboard, her mother told the New York Times.
Later on Monday, the family of the passengers who died posted a statement on Facebook identifying the victims and paying tribute to them.
It named them as Adam Robinson, 45, a Texas-based technology entrepreneur; his wife Helen Sharp, 40; and their children, Emma, four, and Charlie, two. The statement said close family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr were also killed, along with Anita Maria Cetina, the children’s nanny.
The pilot in charge of the Learjet was identified by TMZ and other media outlets on Monday as Jeff Gregory, 55, an experienced aviator from Pennsylvania.
You’re a bit confused on the stats
The planes that have the most accidents are general aviation (GA) planes, not chartered private jets like this
GA is the actual small planes. 2-4 seaters usually. It’s also the least experiences pilots, usually pilots building hours to be in the airlines or charters
Charters follow a lot, but not all, of the same safety regulations as commercial airlines. They do still have more accidents, for a variety of reasons
Charter companies play an important role in the pilot pipeline. Many commercial pilots work at charters while they build hours to get their ATP to be able to work at a commercial airline
If they couldn’t work at a charter, they would have to instead fly in circles to build hours. A suboptmial outcome
Mile per mile, cars are more deadly. If the concern is safety, you’d have to start there
Cars are only deadly because any idiot and his dog can get a licence. If car drivers had to go through as much training and rigorous standards as pilots, cars would be safer, since they can’t fall out of the sky.
Cars also have much tighter tolerances than planes. A 1 second lapse on the highway could easily cause a multi-car collision.
Planes have this during takeoff and landing. But once they are in the air, maintain a much larger distance between themselves and any hazard. When something goes wrong, pilots have a long time to fix it.