Joe Mixon Says He Flew on Crashed Palm Beach Learjet With Same Two Pilots Last Month

A day after a Learjet 60 bound for the Bahamas crashed in Palm Beach County and killed all nine people aboard, former NFL running back Joe Mixon has said he flew on that same jet with the same two pilots last month.

Mixon, 30, posted the statement on X on Nov. 2. "Absolutely devastated by yesterday's tragic plane crash in Florida and the loss of all nine lives," he wrote. "I flew on that exact aircraft last month with those same two pilots. They were incredible professionals and genuinely wonderful people."

He did not name the pilots or say where he flew. He did refer to "the young woman's story" and "the bright future she had ahead of her," which matches the 20-year-old co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras. Mixon is a free agent. He recently went to Seattle for a physical with the Seahawks, who decided against signing him.

The pilots

Filgueiras earned her private pilot's license at 17 while still in high school in Palm Beach County. Her family says she had been flying commercially for nine months and had logged 1,300 hours.

The captain has been identified as Jeff Gregory, 55. TMZ first named him. The operator has not confirmed his identity. The Daily Mail reported that Filgueiras worked for Upper Jets, a Fort Lauderdale charter firm. The company has not been quoted on the record in the material we reviewed.

Mixon's post is the only account of that earlier flight. No investigator or official has said it has any bearing on the crash.

What investigators have said about the final minutes

The jet left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at about 10:37 a.m. on Nov. 1, headed for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Around 12:47 p.m., the crew reported ice and moderate turbulence at roughly 35,000 feet. They asked to climb to 37,000 feet and were cleared.

Less than 30 seconds later, they called MAYDAY. NTSB member Tom Chapman said the crew radioed that they were in an "overspeed condition, descending."

Chapman also said investigators have "some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact." Debris landed across a roughly half-mile radius. Authorities said the jet was flying through temperatures near minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

ABC 7 reported that air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data show the descent rate building from 10,000 to 20,000 and then up to 30,000 feet per minute, past the aircraft's design limits. Other outlets cite different peak figures. The NTSB has not published a verified descent profile.

The jet came down in a residential area near Greenacres, gouging a large crater beside a road. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it "looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road." About 600 people nearby were evacuated. Debris fell across ball fields, businesses and homes.

The victims

A joint statement from the families named Austin tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, and their children Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2. It also named the family's nanny, Anita Maria Cetina, and family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.

"Adam and Helen were devoted parents, and Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, were the light of their lives," the families wrote.

Robinson's companies, Retention.com, RB2B and MoltSets, said in a joint statement that he was "a friend, a mentor and a bold, outspoken leader who lived life to the fullest." Austin friend and mentor Brett Hurt called the crash "an unspeakable tragedy."

The investigation

The NTSB lead investigator reached the scene by about 7 p.m. on the day of the crash. The team includes drone pilots, structures specialists and a recorder specialist, and is mapping debris that landed away from the main impact site. The FAA and the jet's manufacturer are assisting. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the crash a "horrific tragedy."

The NTSB says weather is a major focus but has not determined a cause. Speculation about high-altitude aerodynamic limits and overspeed is circulating online, but none of it comes from investigators.

What remains open is why a jet that reported manageable ice and turbulence was in an overspeed descent within 30 seconds of a cleared climb. Recovery of the flight recorders and the wreckage analysis should answer whether the aircraft came apart because of the dive or caused it. The operator has also not said whether it will confirm the captain's identity or address the aircraft's recent flights.