HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – After paying tens of thousands of dollars for commercial pilot training, students at a Connecticut flight school say they were left in the lurch when the academy closed following two fatal plane crashes within five months.
Some students who came from overseas to train at the Hartford-based American Flight Academy are also having to return to their home countries immediately because they say the school canceled their student visas – putting their dreams of becoming pilots on indefinite hold.
Lawsuits, federal investigations and mystery hang over the school, which closed its Hartford and New Haven locations over the past three months. Agents with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s inspector general’s office seized items from the Hartford headquarters in April, but it remains unclear why.
“I don’t know how to describe my feelings. It’s all the feelings simultaneously,” said Arslan Mamiliyev, a 22-year-old student from Turkmenistan. “I’m angry because I paid him that money. I’ll go back to my country and I will hope for the best for our attorney to win this case and get my money back.”
He and two other students recently sued the academy alleging breach of contract. They began attending the school in October and say they paid $28,000 to $39,000 apiece to receive 252 hours of training needed to be certified as commercial pilots, but were left far short of the training hours requirement, the lawsuit says.