The Tribune

THE pilot of the Eleuthera-bound Learjet that crashed in South Florida, killing all nine on board, has been named as Captain Jeffrey Gregory, 55.

He was flying with co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, when the Learjet 60 went down in Greenacres, Palm Beach County, on Sunday. 

The dead also include Texas tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their two young children, their nanny and two friends.

A church tribute said Capt Gregory "went home to be with the Lord when the plane he was flying crashed".

Old friend and former neighbour David Peters told The US Sun that Limerick Chapel in Limerick, Pennsylvania, where both men grew up, had emailed members about his death. Their parents worked at the church, and the pair attended the same small Christian school and later worked together locally.

Mr Peters remembered Capt Gregory as "very diligent and dependable", a boy who dreamed of flying and "loved wearing his leather bomber jacket". He said the pilot built a decades-long aviation career and was a devoted family man whose faith stayed strong. Capt Gregory leaves his wife Cheryl and their older children.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), assisted by the Federal Aviation Administration, is leading the investigation. On Monday it said weather is a major focus, after the crew reported icing and turbulence shortly before the crash.

Investigators said there was evidence the aircraft began breaking up before impact. "We may find parts of the aircraft some distance away from the actual impact site," they said. Officials reportedly said the debris field stretched about half a mile.

NTSB board member Tom Chapman said maintenance records show a cockpit voice recorder was installed, but investigators do not yet know whether it was on board for the flight. "We're still seeking to determine whether there was a recorder and then of course we're very hopeful that we can recover it," he said.

Rain and flooding at the site, where the jet left a crater in a busy road, could slow recovery of flight data. A full report usually takes months, though preliminary findings can emerge sooner.