Shock in the skies of Córdoba: pilot commits suicide in flight, leaves student at the controls

The sky above Toledoa location in the heart ofArgentinawas the scene of an incredible tragedy, which by sheer luck avoided turning into an even larger massacre. Leandro Bertazzoa flight instructor with years of experience, chose to end his existence by jumping from a Cessna C-150 at altitude, abandoning the young student who sat next to her to her fate.

The reconstruction of what happened on board the small aircraft emerges from the words of Eduardo Alvarezhead of the flight school Flying Parrot of Córdoba, who described the surreal and dramatic dynamics of the event to the local media.

The pilot’s last words

The plane was reportedly at about 250 meters altitude when Bertazzo, in a moment of frozen clarity, spoke his last words to the girl: “You know what you have to do.” Immediately after this sentence, the instructor took off his headphones and put away his cell phone, then making the extreme gesture of opening the tailgate.

It was a technically complex maneuver, made difficult by the atmospheric pressure that weighs on the closure during flight, but which the man managed to carry out with determination.

The landing of the young student

The girl, twenty-two years old and having just obtained a pilot’s license, suddenly found herself alone at the controls in an absolute emergency situation. Despite the shock and inevitable panic, the young woman demonstrated extraordinary composure.

She managed to maintain control of the plane, communicate with the control tower and manage the maneuvers necessary to land unharmed, carrying out an operation that many experts define as exceptional for a pilot with only a few hours of flight time under her belt.

“He was a kind person, there was no indication that he would do something like that”

Eduardo Álvarez, director of the aviation school where Leandro, the young man who jumped from the plane, worked, commented how he saw him hours before the incident.

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Investigations in Argentina

The lifeless body of Leandro Bertazzo was found a few hours after the report, in a rural area not far from the city of Toledo. The local authorities immediately started investigations to shed light on the reasons for such a premeditated and tragic act.

From the first rumors leaked from the flight school, it seems that Bertazzo had recently turned to a psychiatric consultant, but had not shown any signs of malaise or instability towards the company he worked for.

The shock of suicide

The Argentine aviation community is in shock over an episode that calls into question the safety and psychological screening protocols of flight personnel. For the young student, who was on board for a normal training session, it was a dramatic and indelible baptism of fire, an experience that surpassed every scenario conceivable in flight manuals.