Pilot Dies After Leaping from Aircraft in Mid-Flight Emergency Incident

(TOLEDO, CÓRDOBA, ARGENTINA) — Flight instructor Leandro Andrés Bertazzo jumped from a Cessna during a training flight over Toledo, south of Córdoba, on July 4, 2026, and died after falling into a field, while the trainee pilot landed the aircraft safely.

Authorities in Córdoba are investigating the incident. Bertazzo was 42.

The trainee told investigators that Leandro Andrés Bertazzo removed his headphones, put aside his mobile phone, unfastened his seatbelt, opened the cockpit door and spoke to her before he jumped.

She said he told her, “you know what you have to do” and “keep going forward.” He then jumped from roughly 820 feet (250 metres).

The account places the final moments inside a small training aircraft, with the student left alone at low altitude. She landed the Cessna on her own.

Officials have centered the inquiry in Córdoba, where investigators are examining what happened during the flight over Toledo. The known sequence of events comes from the trainee’s description of Bertazzo’s actions in the cockpit.

That description was stark and sequential. He took off his headphones, set aside his phone, released his seatbelt and opened the door before speaking to the trainee.

The incident occurred over farmland south of Córdoba, and Bertazzo’s fall ended in a field. The trainee survived and brought the plane down safely after the jump.

Leandro Andrés Bertazzo’s death turned what began as a routine instructional flight into an emergency that the student had to manage alone in the air. Her safe landing ended the flight without a second fatality.

Investigators in Córdoba are now left with a narrow but vivid account of Bertazzo’s last actions: a brief instruction to the trainee, an open door, and a jump from a Cessna at about 820 feet (250 metres) over Toledo.