Deadly US jet crash sparks gender row

NASA chief Jared Isaacman has defended the 20-year-old female copilot against claims she was hired because of DEI policies.

A deadly private jet crash in Florida has sparked a row over diversity hiring policies after social media users alleged that a 20-year-old female copilot was hired because of her gender rather than her qualifications.

All nine people aboard the Learjet 60 were killed when it plummeted onto a road in a residential neighborhood on Sunday, just miles from US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Footage of the crash and recordings of the crew’s final radio communications were shared widely across social media.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has rejected the unsubstantiated claims and defended the copilot, Nathalia Filgueiras.

“I feel compelled to post after seeing commentary about the Lear 60 crash, from missile strikes to DEI to critiquing this poor woman’s final radio calls,” Isaacman, who has logged more than 8,000 flight hours, wrote on X on Monday.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies seek to expand opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women, who remain a small minority in US aviation. According to official figures for 2025, women accounted for just 5.7% of Airline Transport Pilot certificate holders and 10.9% of commercial pilot certificate holders.

“I understand the public interest given the footage and audio,” Isaacman added, but stressed that the cause of the crash remained unknown. He cited several possible factors, including maintenance problems, structural failure, weather conditions, and the crew’s actions.

Isaacman also defended the charter industry’s practice of hiring young commercial pilots to gain experience alongside veteran captains. He said Filgueiras would have undergone the required training and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification checks.

FAA records showed that Filgueiras held commercial pilot credentials and a Learjet 60 type rating, while her family said she had logged more than 1,300 flight hours. US regulations allow private charter copilots to fly with a commercial pilot certificate and the required ratings. Unlike scheduled-airline copilots, they do not generally need 1,500 flight hours.

The broader practice of pairing relatively inexperienced copilots with veteran captains has previously drawn criticism from aviator Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who famously landed a disabled passenger jet on New York’s Hudson River in 2009. Following the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash that killed 157 people, he warned against the risks of insufficient cockpit experience.

“A cockpit crew must be a team of experts, not a captain and an apprentice,” he wrote on social media at the time. He argued that both pilots must be capable of handling extreme emergencies and that airlines bear responsibility for ensuring their crews are fully prepared.

The Ethiopian copilot was initially reported to have just 200 flight hours, although the airline later clarified that he had 350. The disaster was primarily linked to flaws in Boeing’s automated flight-control system, rather than the copilot’s limited experience.