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A 42-year-old flight school instructor has died after reportedly jumping from a training aircraft mid-flight in Argentina’s Córdoba province.
In a statement, the country’s public prosecutor’s office said the incident occurred over the small town of Toledo in central Argentina on July 4 when Leandro Andrés Bertazzo abandoned his 22-year-old student, Rosario, while aboard a Cessna 150G aircraft.
The training flight had taken off from Coronel Olmedo Airport.
Rosario claimed Bertazzo told her, “You know what you have to do, carry on,” before removing his headset, unfastening his seatbelt, opening the door and jumping out of the plane.
In what officials described as “tense moments in the cockpit”, the student, who was experiencing panic, took control of the aircraft and managed to land it safely alone on the runway without suffering any injury or damaging the plane, Del Sur Diario reported.
Immediately after landing, the student triggered an emergency alarm, prompting a search and rescue operation.
The instructor’s lifeless body was later found in a field near the town of Toledo.
Eduardo Álvarez, director of the Flying Parrot Córdoba flying school where Bertazzo worked, said the instructor gave no indication he planned to commit suicide.
Judicial and administrative investigations have been launched into the death, with authorities examining the aircraft’s door mechanisms, safety systems, maintenance records, and flight school documents.
