Tech founder, wife and two young children among nine killed in Learjet crash

The final victims have been named after a plane crash in Florida, including a Texas tech entrepreneur, his wife and their two young children.

The Learjet 60, a private jet, crashed in Palm Beach County on Monday while travelling from Texas to the Bahamas, killing nine people on board.

The victims included Adam Robinson, 44, founder and chief executive of software companies Retention.com and RB2B, his wife Helen Sharp, and their children Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2.

Robinson and Sharp were devoted parents whose children were “the light of their lives”, Robinson’s brother wrote on Facebook.

“Helen and Adam were the love affair that will last forever. Their warmth, generosity and gift for making people feel welcome touched so many lives. Their loss will be felt deeply by all those who loved them and who they loved in return,” Anthony Robinson said.

Friends on board the plane, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, were also among those killed, along with the family’s nanny Anita Maria Cetina, who relatives said was considered part of the household.

Tech exec Adam Robinson, wife Helen Sharp, and their kids Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, died in the plane crash. Photo / Anthony Robinson

The flight crew have been identified as 55-year-old pilot Jeff Gregory and co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, CBS News reported.

Filgueiras, from Palm Beach County, earned her pilot’s licence at 17 and had logged more than 1300 flight hours, according to her family.

Filgueiras could be heard in the cockpit speaking to air traffic control as the plane plummeted.

“We’re descending 8000, mayday, mayday, we’re descending 10,000ft [3048m] per minute,” Filgueiras says in the recording.

“We’re gonna crash into the ground,” she shouts.

Nathalia Filgueiras worked at a private charter firm based in Fort Lauderdale and was the co-pilot of Monday’s flight.

The aircraft crashed near the entrance to a mobile-home park, prompting the evacuation of about 600 residents. No injuries on the ground were reported.

Federal investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have begun examining the circumstances of the crash.

Authorities said the crew reported moderate turbulence and icing conditions while flying at about 10,700m. Air traffic control recordings captured increasingly urgent communications from the cockpit as the aircraft rapidly lost altitude.

The crash left a crater in the road. Photo / Eduin Cruz

Investigators said weather conditions are a major focus of the inquiry. The NTSB said preliminary indications suggest the aircraft may have begun breaking apart before impact, scattering wreckage across a wide area.

Officials said the cause of the crash has not yet been determined.

The private jet was reportedly flying through freezing temperatures when it encountered turbulence and ice accumulation.

Investigators are also working to determine whether cockpit voice-recording equipment was installed and recoverable.