Leandro Bertazzo

Leandro Bertazzo died on Saturday, July 4, 2026, in the area of Toledo, a town in central Cordoba Province, Argentina. He was 42 years old. He had taken off from the Coronel Olmedo aerodrome in a two seat Cessna 150 aircraft to give a lesson to a 22 year old student pilot named Rosario.

According to the account the student gave to investigators and that was reported by the Argentine outlet TN and widely republished internationally, Bertazzo handed her full control of the aircraft, told her, "You know what you have to do, carry on," then removed his headset, set aside his phone, unfastened his seatbelt, opened the cabin door against the force of the air and exited the moving plane. Opening a door in flight against that air pressure is extremely difficult, the director of his flying school later said, comparing it to opening a car door at 200 kilometers per hour.

Rosario, in shock but uninjured, kept control of the aircraft and brought it down safely on her own, then contacted the flying school and authorities and directed them to the area where she had seen her instructor fall. Colleagues from the Flying Parrot Cordoba school and rural police searched the ground beneath the flight path and found his body later that day. Provincial prosecutor Patricia Baulies of Rio Segundo opened an investigation into what was treated from the outset as an apparent suicide; the case was later also taken up by federal authorities in Cordoba.

The flying school's director, Eduardo Alvarez, said he had seen no indication that Bertazzo intended to jump, noting that his colleague had flown without incident with another student earlier that same day, and that the school had not been aware he was receiving psychiatric care. Bertazzo's father later told the newspaper La Nacion that his son had been going through a difficult period and had sought psychiatric help in the days before his death.

Four months after his death, Bertazzo's parents, Ethel and Carlos Bertazzo, spoke publicly for the first time, in interviews with Argentine and Chilean outlets. They said their son had seen a psychiatrist the day before he died, that a temporary home based course of care had been agreed, and that a fuller admission had been scheduled for the Sunday after his death. They said he had instead gone to the aerodrome, apparently for what his psychiatrist believed would be a lunch with friends. The parents alleged that Leandro had been the target of sustained, anonymous online harassment in his final weeks and said they were seeking access to his phone to identify who had been involved. His mother, Ethel, said of his final moments: "Leandro opened the airplane door, but many hands pushed him." Friends and former students shared tributes describing him as a cheerful, generous teacher, and his family said they hoped speaking publicly would encourage greater empathy and open conversation about mental health.