A VIRAL post on social media claims that the pilot of the Learjet 60 aircraft that crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, was female.
The post, made by a verified X user @fimlex2, suggest misogynistic undertones regarding female pilots, with the caption:
“The pilot of the plane that crashed was a female, it all makes sense now”
As of 4 November 2026, the post has generated over 161,000 views, 1400 likes and more than 263 retweets.
READ: NAF 931 spent nearly four years in Germany for maintenance before Ondo crash — Fact-check
CLAIM
Post claims that the pilot of the Learjet 60 plane that crashed in Florida was a female.
FINDINGS
Findings by the FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
A review of official reports and flight manifests confirms that the claim misrepresents the roles of the flight crew aboard the Learjet 60.
The Learjet 60, which was travelling from Austin, Texas to the Bahamas on Sunday, November 1, crashed on a street nine miles (14 km) from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
According to reports by BBC, CNN and other international media houses, the Pilot in Command (Captain) of the aircraft was Jeffrey Gregory, a 55-year-old male pilot with extensive flying experience.
The female crew member, 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, served as the co-pilot.
Under Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the Pilot in Command holds ultimate legal authority and responsibility for the operation and safety of the flight. Standard multi-pilot aviation procedures dictate that while one aviator actively flies the aircraft, the other acts as the pilot monitoring, a role responsible for handling radio communications with Air Traffic Control among others.
This standard operating procedure explains why Filgueiras’s voice was recorded on ATC radio transmissions during the emergency descent, which social media users misconstrued as evidence that she was the primary captain in charge of the aircraft.
Investigations into the structural failure and cause of the crash remain ongoing by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
VERDICT
The claim that the pilot of the plane that crashed in Florida was female is MISLEADING. Findings show that the Pilot in Command was 55-year-old Jeffrey Gregory, while 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras served as the co-pilot.
Seasoned writer and literary curator, Zainab Abdulrasaq is a factchecker for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached on IG @blackbookishgirl or zabdulrasaq@icirnigeria.org
