Flight instructor jumped midair to his death, left student to land the plane
High in the skies over Argentina, a flight instructor at the controls of a Cessna 150 suddenly turned to his student and reportedly said, โYou know what you have to do, carry on.โ
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Then he took off his headset, unbuckled his seat belt, shoved open the door and jumped out of the plane, the Argentine news outlet TN reported.
The 22-year-old student, identified in the news account only as Rosario, already had a pilotโs license and was able to safely land the aircraft.
The incident is now under investigation by the Federal Court of Cรณrdoba, Argentina, and the plane has been impounded, NBC News has confirmed.
Authorities have not yet revealed why 42-year-old Leandro Andrรฉs Bertazzo leaped to his death Saturday from the Cessna.
Eduardo รlvarez, director of the Flying Parrot Cรณrdoba flying school where Bertazzo worked, told TN they only recently learned that the flight instructor had been under psychiatric care and that he had no clue Bertazzo was planning to kill himself.
In fact, รlvarez said, Bertazzo had gone on a training flight with another student earlier that day.
โHe made this tragic decision aboard an aircraft with one other person by his side,โ รlvarez said in the interview. โThereโs no way to think about it or understand it, but the human mind is so complex, so treacherous.โ
As for the student pilot, รlvarez said, she was โvery clear, decisive, mature and professional.โ
โShe was very shaken, but with complete professionalism, she piloted the plane to the airfield and landed perfectly,โ he said. โShe maintained a very high level of training and professionalism.โ
Bertazzo had worked at Flying Parrot Cรณrdoba for a decade and was a licensed commercial pilot, his former boss said. He had also worked for a time in neighboring Chile.
On Saturday, according to the TN account, Bertazzo arrived at the school in the Cรณrdoba suburb of Coronel Olmedo. He greeted his coworkers and then set off on the first training flight of the day, which went smoothly.
The second flight on his schedule was with Rosario, who has a pilotโs license but had not logged enough flying hours to pilot a plane by herself.
It was while flying over a mostly rural area called Toledo that Bertazzo suddenly shoved open the plane door โ a maneuver รlvarez likened to opening the door of a car traveling 124 miles per hour.
รlvarez said that after the student successfully landed the Cessna, he took off to look for Bertazzoโs body. After spotting it from the sky, he said, he radioed officers from the Central Rural Patrol the coordinates and they found his remains.
Bertazzo was โa beautiful person with a great smile,โ said รlvarez. โWe are surprised that this has happened.โ
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 or go to 988lifeline.org to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
