Two-time Pro Bowl running back Joe Mixon is reeling after learning he flew on the very same Learjet — with the same two pilots — just weeks before it crashed in Florida on Sunday.
Mixon, 30, was “absolutely devastated” by the crash that killed nine people, he wrote in a heartbreaking tribute post on X on Tuesday.
“I flew on that exact aircraft last month with those same two pilots,” the former Cincinnati Bengal wrote. “They were incredible professionals and genuinely wonderful people.”
Mixon singled out 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, saying her story had touched him.
“Hearing the young woman’s story and learning about the bright future she had ahead of her makes it even more heartbreaking that her life was cut so short,” he wrote.
Mixon offered his prayers to the families of everyone aboard, calling the crash a “tragic reminder of how fragile life is.”
“Love on your loved ones while you can, because you never know what tomorrow may bring,” he wrote, closing his tribute.
Filgueiras was co-piloting the Learjet 60 alongside 55-year-old pilot Jeff Gregory on a flight from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas.
The young aviator, who grew up in Palm Beach County, made local headlines in October 2023 when she earned her private pilot’s license at 17 while she was still in high school — before she even had a driver’s license.
The 20-year-old had been flying commercially for nine months and had logged 1,300 hours in the air before her death, her heartbroken family told The Post.
The pilots had asked to climb to roughly 37,000 feet to get above bad weather, reporting icing and turbulence before the jet entered a steep nosedive — plummeting more than 20,000 feet per minute.
The jet ultimately crashed into a mobile home park in Palm Beach County, knocking down power lines and gouging an enormous crater into the ground.
Filgueiras can be heard screaming in air traffic control audio as she radioed a controller moments before the crash, while Gregory can be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer in the final seconds.
She had also texted her boyfriend, Justin, just 10 minutes before the crash, telling him they had hit turbulence and were dealing with icing.
The passengers killed in the horrifying crash included multimillionaire tech exec Adam Robinson, 44, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their two young children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, Robinson’s brother confirmed Monday.
Family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr and the family’s nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina, were also killed.
Federal investigators have not determined what caused the jet to plummet, but authorities said Monday it was flying through temperatures of minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
The plane began to break apart before impact, scattering debris across a half-mile radius, the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference.
Investigators haven’t determined whether the plane had a cockpit voice recorder — or whether the device survived the crash.
