A family of four with ties to Austin, including two children ages 4 and 2, were among nine people who died Sunday when a commercial plane bound for the Bahamas crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, according to a joint statement from the victims’ families. The families identified the seven passengers as Adam Robinson; his wife, Helen Sharp; her children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2; Rachel Reed; Charmi Fehr; and Anita María Cetina. Robinson was the founder and CEO of Retention.com and RB2b, marketing technology companies that helped companies identify visitors to their websites. Sharp had been CEO and founding partner of Influential PR. In September, Sharp announced in a social media post that the family would make Aspen, Colorado, “our permanent home after a trial period” while she focused on her new pottery business. The families called Robinson and Sharp “devoted parents” and said their young children were “the light of their lives.” The statement described Reed and Fehr as partners “full of joy and adventure.” He said Cetina cared for Emma and Charlie “with tenderness and devotion, and she was truly part of the family.” Federal investigators said Monday that the crew of a commercial airliner leaving Austin reported ice building on the plane and turbulence strong enough to push it hundreds of feet up or down shortly before the plane hit the ground. Two pilots also died when the Learjet 60 crashed on a highway in a residential area of Palm Beach County shortly before noon Austin time on Sunday, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. A man suffered a leg injury while walking away from the area, investigators said. There have been no other reports of people on the ground being injured. Government officials have not determined what caused the accident. The New York Times and the New York Post reported that Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, of Boca Raton, was one of the pilots. Her mother identified her in the two newspapers, but authorities have not confirmed her identity. Federal Aviation Administration records show Filgueiras had a commercial pilot certificate and a rating that allowed him to fly the Learjet 60 but not serve as pilot in command. About 400 people were evacuated from the surrounding neighborhood, which includes dozens of mobile homes, as crews searched for parts of the plane. Investigators described a debris field about a half-mile long, with small pieces of the plane scattered across playing fields, businesses and residential properties. The plane left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport around 9:37 a.m. for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, NTSB board member Tom Chapman said during the agency’s first briefing since the fatal crash. Public flight tracking data located the plane on the airport ramp near Signature Aviation before takeoff. Signature is one of ABIA’s three fixed-base operators, providing services such as refueling, parking and passenger amenities. A person who answered the phone at Signature said someone would return KUT News’ call. At around 11:47 a.m. Central Time, while flying at 35,000 feet, the crew told air traffic controllers that they were encountering clear, clear ice and moderate turbulence. Clear ice is a transparent glaze that forms on airplanes when water droplets hit the airplane and spread before freezing. The crew described the ice as manageable, Chapman said. The turbulence was causing the plane’s altitude to vary by about 700 feet. The crew then reported precipitation and asked to climb to 37,000 feet. Air traffic control approved the request. Less than 30 seconds later, the crew reported that the plane was descending and declared an emergency. The pilots reported descent speeds of 10,000 and then 20,000 feet per minute. One pilot said he was in an overspeed condition, meaning the plane was moving faster than its permitted limit. “We’re going to crash into the ground,” a panicked pilot radioed to air traffic control as he reported altitude readings and the angle at which the plane was banking. The plane crashed around 11:51 a.m. Central Time. Local officials said formally identifying the victims could take time because DNA would need to be compared. “It’s a long process, so I wouldn’t assume anything right away,” said Palm Beach County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo. Investigators have early indications that the plane may have begun to break up before impact. “We’ve just started our documentation. We have a lot of work to do at the scene,” said NTSB Investigator-in-Charge Tim Monville. “This will be a process of several days, and the biggest obstacle we are going to have is recovering the main remains of the impacted crater on the road.” About 20 NTSB investigators are working on the case. The NTSB said the plane was operated by Aurora Aviation, doing business as Upper Jets. The agency described the flight as a Part 135 operation, which covers on-demand commercial services such as charter flights and air taxis.
