A 22-year-old student pilot identified only as Rosario brought a Cessna 150 down safely on her own after her flight instructor removed his headset and seatbelt, forced open the aircraft door and dropped from the plane, according to accounts reported by CNN affiliate TN.
Argentine prosecutors said in a statement released Tuesday that the instructor, 42-year-old Leandro Andrés Bertazzo, was found dead after the Saturday incident near Toledo, in the country’s central region. Investigators have opened a review of the circumstances surrounding his death.
Rosario recounted that Bertazzo spoke to her before leaving the cockpit, saying, “You know what you have to do, carry on.”
Eduardo Álvarez, who directs the Flying Parrot Córdoba flying school that employed Bertazzo, said the aircraft sustained no damage during the landing, which the student completed while in “complete shock.”
Álvarez described the physical difficulty of what Bertazzo did, likening the force against a plane door in flight to attempting to push open a car door at 200 kilometers an hour (124 miles per hour).
The school director said nothing had suggested such an outcome. Bertazzo had already flown with a different student earlier the same day.
“He made this tragic decision on board an aircraft with another person by his side,” Álvarez said. “It’s impossible to think about it or understand it, but the human mind is so complex.”
Bertazzo brought considerable experience to the cockpit, having previously instructed student pilots in Chile, TN reported. Álvarez remembered him as “a beautiful person with a great smile.”
