KUALA LUMPUR: Nearly 100 cadet pilots have seen their hopes come crashing and are claiming they have lost RM250,000 each after their flight school closed for restructuring.
The school in Sarawak halted its courses about 10 months ago, leaving 94 students in the lurch, said Umno Youth community complaints bureau head Datuk Muhammad Khairun Aseh.
He said the school had been approved by the Higher Education Ministry with a 20-month course schedule including time-off for holidays.
“However, some students have been there for over three years without obtaining their Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL).
“To obtain their CPL, students need at least 200 hours of flight experience.
“However, many are stuck with anywhere between 150 to as little as three hours of experience,” Muhammad Khairun said here yesterday.
He claimed the school required students to pay for their courses upfront, adding that collectively, the students had paid nearly RM24mil, not including accommodation costs.
“Many have taken study loans, while some parents mortgaged their houses to give their children this opportunity,” he said.
Muhammad Khairun added that the bureau had talked to the school but failed to get any conclusive course of action.
One of the school's cadet pilots claimed the students received a letter last October about the postponement, citing “restructuring exercises and the escalating cost of jet fuel”.
“Until now, we haven't received any further information from the school about how the restructuring is going,” he said.
A former instructor from the school claimed several instructors had quit after they were not paid for several months.
Retired captain Sukaimi Yahya suggested several solutions to help the students obtain their CPL.
“If they can't complete their courses here, they should be sent to other approved flight training organisations (AFTOs) or be adopted by commercial airlines to train.
“However, this requires a lot of money. Students should either be given a second round of loans or compensated by the school to continue their studies,” he said.
He added that most AFTOs were already fully booked and it was unlikely they had enough instructors and aircraft to take on additional students.
Efforts to contact the college were unsuccessful.
Source : http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/7/29/nation/9199974&sec=nation
No comments:
Post a Comment