A 20-year-old copilot was among nine people killed when a small jet crashed and exploded in Florida on Sunday, according to US media.

Nathalia Filgueiras, who earned her pilot’s licence when she was 17, is reported to have been one of two crew members aboard the Learjet 60 from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it crashed near West Palm Beach.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it would investigate to what extent ice and turbulence may have contributed to the crash, and whether human error played a role.

One man on the ground sustained a leg injury when the aircraft nosedived on to a street near Cresthaven, nine miles (14 km) from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

The debris was scattered across sports fields, businesses and homes in the area, officials told a news conference on Monday, possible evidence that the plane broke up before it hit the ground.

The NTSB confirmed that after the jet took off from Austin, the crew transmitted to air traffic control that they were encountering ice and moderate turbulence.

“We are picking up precipitation, requesting to climb to 37,000 feet if able,” the crew said.

NTSB member Tom Chapman said that less than 30 seconds later, the plane began to descend and the crew issued a mayday call.

The transmission then became “unintelligible”, he said, adding that: “Sadly, all aboard were lost.”

Flight analysis indicates the jet was plummeting hundreds of feet per second before crashing.

In air traffic control audio, a crew member can be heard declaring an emergency, shouting “we are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000ft per minute”, before saying, “we are going to crash into the ground”.

About 35 seconds after the initial mayday announcement, the last remark from the cockpit appears to be “we’re out of time”.

Three years before crash, young copilot spoke of earning pilot licence
Filgueiras’s mother, Camila Corteleti, confirmed to US media that her daughter had died in the fireball.

Corteleti told the New York Times: “She loved the freedom. It was completely different seeing the world from the top.”

In a 2023 interview with a local news affiliate of CBS News, Filgueiras spoke proudly of receiving her pilot’s licence while still a senior in high school.

“I like being different than everyone,” she said. “Some people think that it’s weird that I can fly planes, but I can’t drive a car, I mean I can but, a lot of people think it’s funny.”

None of the other eight people on board has been identified.

An award-winning University of Cambridge researcher, Dr Marta Shahbazi has been identified as one of the victims in the Spanish train disaster last week Wednesday, where over 60 people died. She died while on her way to collect a prize for scientific excellence.

Dr Shahbazi was travelling to an awards ceremony on Wednesday when the train she was on crashed into another near Urda, south of Madrid, killing 69 people.

The mother of two was an affiliate associate professor leading a group of researchers at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge and had earned several awards for work on human embryos and cell biology.

In a statement, the LMB paid tribute to the “inspiring, talented and passionate scientist” and described her death as a “profound shock and a huge loss”.

The expert in cell biology ran the Shahbazi Laboratory at the LMB, based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

She had been announced as the winner of a Spanish Society for Developmental Biology award for her contributions to the study of early human development and was due to collect the award at a conference in El Rompido in Andalusia.

The LMB said: “As a wife and mother of two young children, Marta wrote eloquently about balancing her family and career, serving as a much-admired role model for a ‘mother scientist’, a term she used to describe herself.

“Marta was an inspiring, talented and passionate scientist whose research shed light on the earliest steps in the development of human embryos and how errors occur that lead to failed pregnancies,” the LMB said.

The institute said her death was “a profound shock and a huge loss for LMB”.

Her work had been recognised with “many awards and prizes”, the laboratory added.

Shahbazi is listed on the University of Cambridge website as a principal investigator at its Stem Cell Institute (CSCI).

Institute director Prof Bertie Gottgens said its community was “shocked and deeply saddened” by her death.

The crash in Spain happened when a state-operated Renfe high-speed train smashed into the back of a stationary train operated by the Iryo company.

It is one of the worst rail disasters in Europe’s modern history, and Spain’s worst crash since 2013.

Three days of national mourning were declared in the country.

More than 540 people were on board both trains.

Opeyemi Bamidele, leader of the senate, says the national assembly is considering a proposal to create 74 additional seats for women in the senate and house of representatives as part of the ongoing review of the 1999 constitution.

Bamidele also relayed that the constitution review committee has proposed three additional seats for women in each state house of assembly.

He said the proposed seats would be reserved exclusively for women without displacing existing electoral seats.

The senate leader spoke on Monday at the 2026 Law Week organised by the Ekiti state chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA).

The event, chaired by Ayobami Olowoyo-Richards, had the theme, “Justice in a Changing World: Responding to New Challenges Affecting Women and Children”.

Bamidele, who is vice-chairman of the senate committee on the review of the 1999 constitution, said the proposal was designed to deepen women’s participation in politics and governance.

“A Bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to provide for special seats for women in the National and State Houses of Assembly and for related matters is receiving our attention at the National Assembly,” he said.

“The proposal, as it stands, is meticulous in its design. It seeks to add 37 seats in the Senate and 37 seats in the House of Representatives. This suggests that if finally approved, each state of the federation including FCT will have one additional seat in each of the Houses of the National Assembly.

“This arrangement is proposed to run for a period of 16 years, four electoral cycles, before a comprehensive review. This is a sunset clause designed to ensure sustainability and to allow for the organic development of a more inclusive political culture.”

Bamidele said the national assembly is engaging state houses of assembly to secure their approval, which is required for the constitution amendment to take effect.

He described the proposal as a national reform rather than a partisan initiative, arguing that excluding women from decision-making undermines representative democracy.

“A democracy that systematically excludes over half of its population from the decision-making tables that determine their futures is, at best, a flawed democracy and, at worst, a veiled oligarchy,” he said.

The senate leader said the resolve of the 10th national assembly has also been strengthened by advocacy from prominent government figures, including Oluremi Tinubu, the first lady.

He said the legislature is also considering measures to support women, children and persons with disabilities through healthcare initiatives, educational access and social protection programmes.