Pilot in Learjet crash that killed 9 in Florida was a husband, father and a devout Christian

The pilot of a business jet that crashed in Florida, killing all nine people aboard, was a longtime aviator, husband and father from the Philadelphia suburbs, according to a colleague who organized an online fundraiser for his family and social media posts from people who knew him.

Jeff Gregory, 55, was one of two crew members in the cockpit of the Bahamas-bound Learjet 60 as it encountered bad weather and slammed into the ground Sunday afternoon in Greenacres, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) southwest of West Palm Beach.

As the plane plunged, a man’s voice could be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer in the background of the copilot’s final radio transmissions to air traffic control. Friends are convinced it was Gregory, a devout Christian.

A federal investigator said Monday that parts of the jet likely started to break off before it struck the ground. Gregory’s co-pilot, 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, told air traffic controllers that ice was accumulating on the plane and that severe turbulence had thrown it up and down by more than 700 feet (210 meters).

“We’re going to die!” she said with a scream before the jet slammed into the ground and erupted in a fireball.

Thomas Noetzel, the director of operations at the company that operated the flight, Upper Jets, organized an online fundraiser to support Gregory’s wife and children.

Gregory was a close, personal friend and “knowing him has made me a better person,” Noetzel wrote on the fundraising website GoFundMe.

“Jeff was a devoted, conscientious, and deeply faithful man who had a genuine passion for flying and a strong love for the Lord​,” Noetzel’s father, Walter, posted on Facebook. “His journey on earth may have ended, but I like to think he is now flying among the angels, soaring peacefully in the presence of our Lord.”

Gregory held airline transport pilot and flight instructor certificates, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. He lived in Gilbertsville, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, and had previously worked for a charter company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

“We are deeply saddened to learn that Captain Jeff Gregory was among those who lost their lives,” said April Honnen, the director of charter sales for East Coast Jets, Inc., where he worked in 2016 and 2017. “Our prayers go out to Jeff’s family, his fellow crew member, the passengers and everyone affected by this heart breaking tragedy.”

The Learjet hit the ground with enough force to create a crater before bursting into flames. The impact scattered plane fragments over a large area.

Images of the moment just before the aircraft made impact appear to show the horizontal stabilizer missing from the tail of the plane.

All nine people aboard the plane that was flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas died. The victims included technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their two young children, relatives said.

About 600 nearby residents remain displaced, but only one injury was reported on the ground.

Tom Chapman, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said Monday that weather would be a key focus of the investigation. A preliminary report describing what happened will be released in about a month, but it will likely take more than a year to determine the cause of the crash.