The Texas tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, and their two young children are among the nine people who died on Sunday when a private plane crashed in a residential area of Palm Beach, Florida, while traveling from Austin to the Bahamas.
According to a report this Monday by the New York Post, citing information initially released by TMZ, 44-year-old Robinson was traveling with his wife Helen, their two young daughters, identified as Bella and Emma, the girls' nanny, and two close family friends.
The seven passengers and two crew members of the Learjet 60 died when the aircraft crashed to the ground around 12:50 p.m., near the intersection of Military Trail and 10th Avenue North, in the town of Greenacres.
Robinson was a businessman involved in the development of technological tools for companies and the founder of the software companies Retention.com and RB2B.
He had previously worked at financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital.
His wife Helen was dedicated to pottery and publicly shared part of her artistic work and family life.
The tragedy also claimed the lives of her two daughters, while the names of the babysitter and the friends who were traveling with them had not been disclosed in the initial reports.
American media also identified the pilot as Jeff Gregory, 55 years old, and the co-pilot as Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20 years old.
Filgueiras, a resident of Florida, obtained his pilot's license at the age of 17 and had accumulated more than 1,300 flight hours, according to information shared by his family and reported by U.S. media.
Gregory was an experienced aviator from Pennsylvania.
The identification of the victims is known one day after the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, confirmed that none of the nine occupants survived the accident.
In that initial report, the authorities had not yet released the names of the deceased.
The plane, a Learjet 60 identified by the tail number N722BD, had taken off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, headed for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.
The images captured by nearby cameras show how the aircraft fell at high speed and ended up engulfed in a massive fireball.
The impact created a deep crater in the pavement and scattered metal fragments across the streets and nearby properties.
The violence of the fall initially led to speculations about the nature of the object seen in the videos.
However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that it was a Learjet 60 and not a drone or missile, as suggested by some social media posts.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), responsible for investigating the incident, reported this Monday that there are indications that some parts of the aircraft may have detached before it struck the ground.
Researcher Tom Chapman explained that the teams are examining the distribution of the wreckage to reconstruct what happened during the final moments of the flight. The investigation has not yet determined what caused the crash.
The recordings of communications between the crew and air traffic control reveal that the pilots had reported ice accumulation, precipitation, and moderate turbulence while flying at an altitude of about 35,000 feet.
The crew requested authorization to ascend to 37,000 feet, but shortly after, they reported that the aircraft was losing altitude rapidly. In the final seconds, an emergency call was heard before contact was lost.
Investigators are examining the weather conditions and the components recovered from the aircraft, although they have not determined whether ice, turbulence, or any mechanical failure were related to the accident.
The tragedy also affected residents in the area where the aircraft fell. Authorities arranged evacuations and assistance for hundreds of people due to the damage, the fire, and the recovery efforts of the debris.
Among the affected neighbors are Cuban families residing in a nearby mobile home community. Some of them shared videos of the aircraft fragments found near their homes, including metal debris scattered near parked cars and trees.
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