The group was reportedly traveling to the Bahamas to celebrate Robinson’s birthday. Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr were close friends of the Robinson family and a couple who, according to reports from Honduras, were the co-founders of Arca Boutique Hotel.
Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, close friends of Adam Robinson and Helen Sharp who were traveling with the family to the Bahamas. They were among nine people killed in the November 1, 2026, Learjet crash. | Source: Facebook/anthony4
The hotel is a jungle-style boutique property located on West Bay Beach in Roatán, Honduras, which opened in December 2023. Reed had divided her time between Austin, Texas, and her hotel venture in the Caribbean.
Anita Maria Cetina, identified as a 23-year-old Colombian woman, worked as a nanny and caregiver for Emma and Charlie Robinson. A close friend of Cetina revealed that the day before the trip she had gone out to buy gifts for her mother.
“I feel terrible when I hear people saying this was a missile or other conspiracy theories, because my friend died in this terrible accident,” the friend said.
The family statement described Cetina as someone who “cared for Emma and Charlie with tenderness and devotion” and was “truly part of the family.” A photo of Cetina shared by a family friend has also been circulating online as a tribute to the young caregiver.
Anita Maria Cetina, who helped care for Emma and Charlie Robinson and was described by their families as “truly part of the family.” She was among nine people killed in the November 1, 2026, Learjet crash. | Source: Facebook/Sarah.Fields1836
This Was Not the First Fatal Learjet 60 Accident
The Florida disaster also brings renewed attention to the safety history of the Learjet 60, although a previous accident involving the same aircraft model occurred under very different circumstances. On September 19, 2008, another Learjet 60 crashed while attempting to take off from Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina.
According to an investigation report on the 2008 accident, the NTSB determined that severely underinflated tires and the crew’s decision to reject the takeoff after reaching V1 were the probable causes.
All four tires failed during the takeoff roll, and fragments damaged a component of the aircraft’s thrust-reverser system. The resulting malfunction caused the engines to provide forward thrust when the captain was attempting to stop the aircraft.
Wreckage from a Learjet 60 lies along a roadside following a September 19, 2008, crash during takeoff at Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina. The accident killed four people and injured two others, prompting an NTSB investigation that identified severely underinflated tires and a rejected takeoff as contributing factors. | Source: Getty Images
The accident killed the captain, first officer, and two passengers. Two other passengers survived with serious injuries. The investigation identified several contributing factors, including inadequate maintenance, deficiencies in the aircraft’s thrust-reverser design, and shortcomings in crew resource management.
The circumstances of that accident are different from those surrounding Sunday’s crash, and investigators have not established any connection between the two incidents. The Learjet 60, which was introduced in the early 1990s, is a twin-engine business jet designed to carry a flight crew of two and, depending on its seating configuration, between six and nine passengers.
Its first flight took place in October 1990, and it received certification in January 1993, according to aircraft information published by Forecast International.
Emergency vehicles, police officers, and investigators gather near the wreckage of a Learjet 60 following its fatal crash during takeoff at Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina, on September 19, 2008. The accident killed four people and left two others seriously injured. | Source: Getty Images
Another Recent Plane Crash Raises Questions About the Dangers of Icing
The Florida disaster comes just weeks after another fatal plane crash in Wisconsin in which the pilot also reported icing while flying through a thunderstorm. On October 13, 2026, six people, including a child, died when a six-seat Piper PA-46 Malibu crashed in a wooded area near Mirror Lake State Park, close to Wisconsin Dells.
The aircraft was traveling from Kenosha to Menomonie when it went down shortly before 10 p.m. as rain fell and a thunderstorm moved through the Town of Dellona, according to the Sauk County Sheriff’s Department.
Before the crash, the pilot had alerted air traffic control that ice was building up on the aircraft’s wings while it was flying at 24,000 feet (7,315 meters). The pilot requested permission to descend, and air traffic control approved the maneuver.
However, the aircraft subsequently entered a descending right turn that became increasingly steep until communication and flight tracking were lost, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.
FlightRadar24 data showed the plane descending at up to 4,000 feet per minute, while its airspeed nearly doubled to 340 mph. “It has all the earmarks of an icing-related loss of control,” aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration crash investigator, said.
A Piper PA-46 Malibu similar to the aircraft involved in the October 13, 2026, Wisconsin crash. The six-seat plane crashed near Wisconsin Dells after its pilot reported ice building up on the wings while flying through a thunderstorm, killing all six people aboard. | Source: Getty Images
The Wisconsin crash also brought attention to earlier concerns about icing involving the Piper Malibu and Mirage aircraft models. The NTSB had previously conducted a special safety review of seven icing-related crashes involving the two models between 1989 and 1991.
Several of those incidents involved relatively inexperienced pilots who were unfamiliar with handling sophisticated aircraft in icing conditions. Following its review, the NTSB recommended changes to pilot training, aircraft checklists and manuals, as well as improvements to indicators for systems that heat pitot tubes.
Those heating systems help prevent ice from interfering with the instruments used to provide pilots with accurate airspeed information. In the Wisconsin crash, authorities confirmed that all six people aboard died, while nobody on the ground was injured and no structures were damaged. The NTSB is leading the investigation into that incident.
Although the Wisconsin and Florida crashes involved different aircraft, the pilots’ reports of icing make the incidents a sobering reminder of the dangers severe weather can pose to aircraft. Investigators have yet to establish whether icing contributed to either plane crash.
