The chilling final moments aboard a doomed private jet are now coming to light.
An extended audio recording reveals just how terrifying the situation became.
The Learjet 60, reportedly worth around $2 million, crashed into a mobile home community in Florida on Sunday, November 1, killing all nine people on board.
Now, the newly circulated recording is offering a disturbing glimpse into what happened in the moments before the aircraft plunged toward the ground.
It includes warnings about severe precipitation, reports of ice forming on the plane, and an increasingly desperate exchange as the situation spiraled out of control.
Among those on board were a young family with two small children, their nanny, two friends, the pilot, and the co-pilot.
Air traffic control warned the pilots
The recording begins with a warning from a call handler at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center.
”The turn to Freeport looks pretty bad; there is moderate to extreme precipitation,” the controller tells the crew.
Despite the warning, the aircraft continued toward the area. Shortly afterward, 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueira reported that ice was forming on the aircraft.
”We have light clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” she said.
As conditions became increasingly difficult, Filgueira asked whether air traffic control could suggest an alternative route that would help them avoid the storm.
“Thank you. If you have any better rides, let us know,” Filgueiras said.
“The rides do improve in my airspace. You’re kind of far outside of it right now, and you can expect better rides ahead,” the controller responded.
The young pilot also requested permission to climb from 35,000 to 37,000 feet, apparently in an attempt to get away from the freezing conditions.
The pilots’ final mayday call is heartbreaking
Then, in what would become the most distressing part of the recording, the situation appears to deteriorate rapidly.
The crew issued a mayday call as the aircraft began descending at an alarming rate.
”We’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot told the controller.
She continued, urgently reporting that the descent had accelerated.
”We are in an overspeed condition, descending 20,000 feet per minute.”
Then came the words no pilot ever wants to have to say.
”We’re going to crash into the ground,” she said, followed by a terrified scream.
Moments later, the Learjet slammed into the Greenacres mobile home community in Florida, creating a huge fireball and leaving a massive crater.
The crash happened around 1 p.m., approximately nine miles from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. The aircraft had been flying from Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.
An investigation has been launched to establish exactly what happened and what caused the aircraft to lose control. The audio provides a timeline of the crew’s final communications, but it does not by itself establish the cause of the crash.
Nine people lost their lives
The seven passengers killed in the crash included Austin-based tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 44, his wife Helen Sharp, their four-year-old daughter Emma, and their two-year-old son Charlie.
Their nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina, also died, along with family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.
The two crew members were pilot Jeff Gregory, 55, and co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueira, 20.
As investigators work to piece together the final moments of the flight, the extended recording has offered a harrowing account of the crew’s last attempts to deal with the unfolding emergency.
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