IASCO Flight School Instructors Arrested In Connection With The Incident

A Chinese flight school student in the U.S. on a student visa says two employees of the IASCO flight school in Redding, CA attempted to kidnap him and have him deported back to China. The school has a contract with China's civil aviation authority to train new pilots.

The Redding Record Searchlight reports that CFI Jonathan McConkey and ground school instructor Kelsi Hoser, both employees of IASCO, confronted Tianshu "Chris" Shi last Tuesday at the apartment where he was living with several other of the school's students. They threatened him with immediate deportation, but did not give a reason for the threat.  

Shi, 24, says he had been grounded from flying for three weeks. He told the paper that he believes the threat was due to what he described a minor infraction of the school's rules.

Shi made an audio recording of the confrontation, which is included in the paper's report.

Shi said that he has never had an issue with his flight training, and suspects that he was grounded because of his difficulty with English.

The student said that McConkey physically grabbed him and threatened him with bodily injury.

Both McConkey and Hoser were arrested and booked into the Shasta County, CA jail on suspicion of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit a crime. There were not listed on the jail's electronic custody roster as of last Friday.

(Images provide by the Redding Police Department)

FMI: Original report