A tragic incident occurred on Saturday afternoon (July 4) in the small town of Toledo, in Argentina’s Córdoba Province, when a 22-year-old student pilot was forced to land a single-engine Cessna C-150 on her own after her instructor suddenly jumped from the aircraft and died by suicide during their flight.

According to information from the Daily Mail, the young woman, who reportedly holds a pilot’s license but has limited flight experience, said that her 42-year-old instructor, Leandro Bertazzo, opened the window of the small aircraft and jumped out.

Despite facing a horrifying and completely unexpected situation—watching her instructor abandon the aircraft while they were thousands of feet above the ground—she managed to safely land the Cessna C-150 at Coronel Olmedo Airport, where they had taken off from. She then alerted authorities and reported what had happened.

Bertazzo was found dead 20 minutes later in a nearby field that his student had identified as the area where he may have fallen. Authorities are investigating the causes and circumstances surrounding the 42-year-old instructor’s death.

“He removed his seat belt and jumped; he was always smiling”

Eduardo Alvarez, director of the Flying Parrot Córdoba pilot school, where Bertazzo had worked as an instructor for four years, spoke about his conversation with the young student.

“At some point Leandro told her: ‘You know what to do, keep moving forward.’

“He removed his headset, gathered his personal belongings, including his mobile phone, took off his seat belt, opened the door—which is very difficult to open—and jumped out. She sent a message informing [people] of the situation and then proceeded to return to the runway to land,” he told Argentine media.

Alvarez described Leandro as a man who was “always smiling”, while acknowledging that no one had suspected he was about to make such a dramatic decision.

“He made this tragic decision inside an airplane with another person sitting beside him. There is no way for anyone to anticipate it or understand it, but the human mind is so complex and so unpredictable. That is why this happened.”

Local media reported that the 42-year-old had allegedly been undergoing neuropsychiatric treatment, although only his close relatives were aware of this before Saturday’s tragedy.

Regarding the 22-year-old student pilot, Alvarez described her as “very clear-minded, determined, mature, and professional.” He added:

“She was very shaken, but with absolute professionalism she flew the aircraft back to the airport and carried out a perfect landing. She maintained a very high level of training and professionalism.”