A student pilot has spoken of how she was forced to land a plane alone after her instructor ‘jumped to his death from the cockpit’ midway through the flight.
The unnamed 22-year-old had been training along with her instructor, 42-year-old Leandro Bertazzo, over Toledo, Argentina, on July 4, when he reportedly opened the window of the Cessna C150 plane and jumped.
The coed’s account of the incident states that she watched Bertazzo plunge to his death. While she previously thought he had deployed a parachute she soon realised that was not the case.
Despite witnessing such a harrowing moment — and having only limited experience in flying — the coed raised the alarm before landing the plane safely and unaided at Coronel Olmedo Airport, which relies in Cordoba and commonly utilized by flight schools for training pilots.
Reports said Mr Bertazzo’s body was present in a close-by field 20 minutes later.
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Eduardo Alvarez, director of flight school Flying Parrot Cordoba, where Mr Bertazzo worked as an instructor, revealed details of his conversation with the coed after the incident.
Chatting with Argentinian media he explained that she told him he had ‘jumped’, adding: ‘[She said] he took his headphones off, arranged his belongings including his cell phone, took his seatbelt off, opened the door which could be very difficult to open and jumped out.’
‘She sent a message informing concerning the situation and proceeded to return to the runway to land,’ he added, saying the coed, who had a pilot’s licence but few flying hours under her belt, had been ‘very clear, decisive, mature and skilled’.
‘She was very shaken, but with complete professionalism she flew the plane to the airfield and made an ideal landing,’ he added.
It’s also been reported that at one point in the course of the flight Mr Bertazzo told her: ‘You realize what to do, keep moving forward.’
Mr Alvarez went on to explain him as someone who was ‘at all times smiling’, saying that his death had come completely out of the blue.
‘He took this tragic decision on board a plane with an individual by his side,’ he said.
‘There’s no strategy to give it some thought or understand it, however the human mind is so complex, so treacherous. That’s why what happened, happened.’
An investigation into the trainer’s death is ongoing with officials saying the circumstances surrounding the accident are so unusual they’re unable to clarify the way it may need happened.
One line of inquiry being followed is whether or not a mechanical failure regarding a hatch or one among the plane’s safety systems occurred, with the craft and the flight school documentation being studied, together with the communications maintained while the plane was airborne.
Local reports have said Mr Bertazzo, who described himself as a former industrial pilot in Chile, had undergone neuropsychiatric treatment.
Nevertheless, only close relations were said to pay attention to this before his tragic death occurred.
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