A number of Irish student pilots who paid upwards of €80,000 to attend a flight school in the US have been left stranded following the cessation of their course.
The 34 students who enrolled with the Pilot Training College (PTC) in Waterford had been undergoing the training at the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT).
However, a dispute over the terms of the contract between the Waterford-based company and FIT has left the students stranded in Melbourne, Florida facing a loss of fees.
In a statement PTC Waterford said it terminated its relationship with the FIT over the “failure to deliver on training contracts in a timely and professional manner” and as such it has put the Florida school on notice of litigation for breach of contract.
PTC said it paid 25 per cent of the fees per quarter on behalf of students to FIT but the company was not able to deliver the training in a timely manner due to staff and resource shortages.
“This created a backlog, none of which was PTC’s doing, and this impacted on the throughput of students both in the US and in Ireland.
“Meanwhile PTC has had to pay the overheads both in Waterford and Florida, during which time students were not receiving their training. This has been an issue of conflict between PTC and FIT for twelve months while we tried everything in our powers to resolve it,” the company added.
Speaking to RTE one student, Daniel McLernon, said FIT informed them the contract between the two groups had been cancelled 10 days ago.
“We’ve basically been sitting around since then and we’ve been told absolutely nothing,” he said.
“The only help that we have got has come from FIT Aviation. They’ve allowed us to stay in the accommodation until July 15th but our visas, because we do not actually attend FIT Aviation anymore, expire on July 17th, which technically makes us illegal in this country.”
“If I don’t get my money back my family are €100,000 in debt with no way of paying it back,” Mr McLernon added.
PTC executive chairman Mike Edgeworth said not all the students would lose money as it depends on their stage of training.
“Those who have recently enrolled in PTC (39 people) should not be financially impacted. For those who have actually recently commenced training (25 people), the financial impact should be minimal. The situation of those who are in the middle of their fifteen month course are still awaiting for FIT to deliver their part of the syllabus and PTC cannot control this, and this may be subject to litigation by us,” Mr Edgeworth said.
A spokeswoman for the Irish Aviation Authority (the body that regulates flight training organisations) said it is “aware of certain difficulties” and an official from the authority has been in Florida since June 29th liaising with students to “explore processes that may facilitate the students to complete their training either in Florida or back in Ireland”.
A spokesperson for FIT was not available due to Independence Day celebrations in the US.
The Irish Aviation Authority, which regulates, approves and oversees flight training organisations, said it was working to ensure that all training conducted to date in Waterford and Florida would be credited to the students’ training records.