Anri van Toor

A 20-year-old woman died in a terrifying plane crash, and before her family could even begin to bury her, social media influencers were already using her death to attack women and girls. Some of these voices even claim to speak for Christianity. There is something profoundly wrong with this. Her name was Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras. On November 1, a Learjet 60 traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas crashed near West Palm Beach, Florida, killing all nine people aboard: seven passengers and two pilots. Among the dead were Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their four-year-old daughter Emma, their two-year-old son Charlie, two family friends, and the children’s nanny. The aircraft’s captain, Jeffrey Gregory, also lost his life. Nathalia was just 20 years old. She had earned her pilot’s license at 17 and accumulated more than 1,300 hours of flight experience. She had pursued her dream of becoming a professional aviator, a career demanding considerable technical knowledge, discipline, and training. During the emergency, it was Nathalia’s voice communicating with air traffic control. She reported icing, turbulence, and the aircraft’s increasingly desperate situation, continuing to communicate as the emergency unfolded. And now, instead of allowing her family to grieve, people are exploiting those final moments to ridicule her, question her abilities, and advance arguments about whether women belong in aviation and other technical professions. Friends in Christ, what are we becoming? This is one of the ways social media influencers can lead us away from what is good, beautiful, and true. They take a human tragedy, strip away the dignity of those involved, and turn suffering into entertainment, outrage, and ideological ammunition. We must be very careful about the voices we allow to shape our consciences, especially when those voices claim religious authority. From what I have read, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating several possible factors, including weather conditions and structural failure. Captain Jeffrey Gregory was the pilot in command. Whether this terrible tragedy involved human error, mechanical failure, or some combination of circumstances remains to be determined. Until investigators establish the facts, speculation and accusations serve no good purpose. And please, when those horrific videos and recordings appear in your feed, consider simply scrolling past them. I am not asking anyone to censor the truth. I am asking you to consider what repeatedly consuming another person’s final moments does to your heart, your mind, and your soul. Those were real people. Two of them were little children. They were loved, and their families are suffering. For now, let us pray for all nine souls, for those who mourn them, for everyone traumatized by witnessing the crash, and for the investigators entrusted with discovering the truth. May God grant the dead eternal rest, comfort those who love them, and help us recover some measure of compassion in the way we treat one another. Amen.