Say They're Owed $130,000

It appears not just Silver State Helicopters students are having troubles with the lack of training for the money invested in their education.

International Airline Training Academy (IATA), located at Ryan Airfield in Tucson, AZ, has also come under fire from a group of its students for failure to make good on flight promises. A group of 10 Indian students claim $130,000 in incomplete training from IATA, citing lack of flight hours, insufficient planes and instructors as factors.

The students tell The Arizona Daily Star they signed on to train for up to 10 months and leave IATA with an ATP rating. Everything from ground lessons, mechanics, and pre-flight preparation -- to flying time six days a week in single engine, multi-engine, and jet engine aircraft -- was supposed to be covered in that 10-month time frame.

The group claims IATA cut their airtime to just two days a week. "After three to four months, it was just getting slow," said one student, Biju Chandran. The students cite a lack of instructors, and aircraft that were compliant with all maintenance needs, as reason for the discrepancy.

The students approached the school on January 25, asking refund payments. According to the paper, IATA called local police, complaining the students were "irate."

Attorney Mark L. Collins, who represents IATA, told the paper the school is one of several coping with a shortage of qualified flight instructors. The school plans to refund less than $110,000 of the students' money, he added.

Meanwhile, the students have since relocated to a Phoenix-area school to their finish training, and are contemplating a lawsuit against IATA. According to Pima County (AZ) Superior Court records, the school has been sued twice in the last two years over finances -- including a suit filed by Bank of America, which claimed last year the school owed about $101,000 on a promissory note and $910,000 in loans taken out by owners Jean-Marc and Teresa Eloy in July and September 2005.

Indian students make up about 10 percent of the IATA's student roster, with Chinese students comprising about 88 percent. Foreign students often choose US flight schools for easier access to open skies for training purposes, which may be more difficult to find in other countries, and often cheaper costs related to fuel and ATC services.

Conversely, shelling out large sums of money to place themselves at the mercy of a training facility 9,000 miles or more away leaves the students in a vulnerable position... especially as they are often on time-limited student visas. With the ultra-fast shutdown of Silver State, as ANN has reported, hundreds of US students face a similar problem.

"When problems occur at flight schools, particularly big flight schools, it really does tarnish the image of all flight schools in the United States," said Rand Goldstein, President of Wright Flyers Aviation Inc. in San Antonio. "Unfortunately, we suffer with the reputations of the few that ruin it."

FMI: www.iataweb.com/