An Argentinian flight instructor jumped out of a plane to his death in the middle of a flying lesson, telling his shocked student, “You know what you have to do,” and leaving her to land the aircraft by herself.
Leandro Andrés Bertazzo was identified as the instructor who bailed out of the Cessna 150G aircraft over the central Argentinian town of Toledo on July 4, abandoning his underling in the process, the Attorney General Carlos Gonella’s office announced.
“You know what you have to do, carry on,” Bertazzo told 22-year-old Rosario, Argentinian outlet Todos Noticias (TN) reported.
Bertazzo then unbuckled from his seat, removed his headset, opened the plane door and jumped out,
Rosario, who has a private pilot’s license, alerted officials at the Flying Parrot flight school in Córdoba to the mid-air tragedy and was guided through emergency protocols to safely land the training plane.
The student was left shaken over the traumatic incident, but was commended for her ability to pilot the aircraft safely to the ground.
“Very clear, decisive, mature, and professional,” Flying Parrot director Eduardo Álvarez said of Rosario, according to the outlet. “She was very shaken, but with complete professionalism, she piloted the plane to the airfield and landed perfectly. She maintained a very high level of training and professionalism.”
Álvarez spotted Bertazzo’s body during a search flight roughly 15 minutes after the jump and reported the location to first responders a field in a rural area of Córdoba.
Bertazzo was pronounced dead at the scene.
Álvarez, who worked closely with Bertazzo, didn’t understand why his instructor jumped out of the plane.
“He made this tragic decision aboard an aircraft with one other person by his side. There’s no way to think about it or understand it, but the human mind is so complex, so treacherous. That’s why what happened, happened,” Álvarez said, according to the outlet.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into Bertazzo’s death after seizing the aircraft to determine the circumstances leading up to the fatal plunge, the attorney general said Tuesday.
Bertazzo allegedly had been suffering mentally and had checked himself into a clinic for mental health unbeknownst to anyone but his close relatives, the outlet reported.
“He had been in a neuropsychiatric institute, but nobody knew about it. Only his family,” Álvarez revealed.
Bertazzo kept his struggles hidden as no one at the flight school noticed anything off with him.
“There’s a very close student-instructor relationship in a professional sense, but none of those who flew with him, nor those of us who saw him, could detect that he was going to make that decision to jump out of an aircraft. Obviously, something was up,” Álvarez told TN.
The training plane was left undamaged, including the door.
Officials were mystified by Bertazzo’s jump, saying it is difficult to open the aircraft’s doors midflight, comparing it to opening a car door while driving roughly 125 mph.
Bertazzo was a veteran pilot with years of experience and multiple licenses, including working as an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP), a first-class commercial pilot, and a flight instructor.
He briefly worked in neighboring Chile during his career, the outlet reported.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
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