A young flight instructor was killed during a lesson when his plane hit a utility pole in Italy and crash-landed on a street — with his teenage student found screaming in the wreckage, according to reports.
Daniel Taino, a 26-year-old pilot, died instantly and his 19-year-old passenger was seriously hurt when their two-seat Cessna 152 smashed into the ground in Valbrembo in northern Italy on Monday, according to local newspaper L’Eco Di Bergamo.
A gardener was trimming hedges when he saw the plane rapidly lose altitude before it clipped a power pole and crashed just 20 yards away. He heard the 19-year-old student’s haunting cries from the wreckage, he told the newspaper.
“I tried to provide first aid to the injured man, who was screaming and flailing about. The [ambulance] arrived within minutes, however, and as soon as the paramedics began to intervene, I obviously stepped aside,” the gardener said in Italian.
The student was rushed to Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo in critical condition.
Taino’s parents and siblings, meanwhile, rushed to the crash site, where he was pronounced dead.
His mother, Debora, burst into tears as she was held by her husband, Carlo, L’Eco Di Bergamo reported.
Students and staff from the flight school where Taino worked, Cantor Air, were also at the emotional scene.
Taino had been working as a flight instructor for the last five months, fulfilling a childhood dream.
The student pilot and Taino had taken off to practice touch-and-go maneuvers over the River Brembo when the plane lost altitude, according to the Sun.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but officials indicated that the engine may have failed.
