He had already spent a whopping ₹37 lakh and completed 185 of the total 200 hours of flying training, when *Himangshu Datta’s academy was temporarily closed following a DGCA order after two air crashes. Without losing more time, he decided to seek admission elsewhere but his school would neither refund his balance fees nor help him secure an admission in lieu of payments already made.
In October last year, the country’s largest flying school, RedBird Flight Training Academy (RFTA), saw two accidents in a span of two weeks at its Baramati base due to engine failure. This sparked a DGCA review, following which the aviation regulator ordered the suspension of flying training due to the school’s “failure to ensure proper maintenance of aircraft for safe flight operations” and recertification for its maintenance facility. During the same time, a complaint from an anonymous whistleblower led to the suspension of the director of flying training at DGCA, Anil Gill, due to bribery allegations that included accepting training aircraft from flying schools which were further leased for as much as ₹90 lakh each annually. According to the complaint, RFTA was among the schools that leased aircraft from Gill.
Three months on, students still don’t know if and when the school will reopen. They have also demanded that the DGCA provide them some protection in the form of a refund or training in a different school and compensation for additional expenses borne by them.
