Students say Denison flight school owes them thousands
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Posted: 6:58 PM Jan 13, 2010
Students say Denison flight school owes them thousands
DENISON, TX - There is new information on Air Safety Flight Academy, which announced yesterday that all operations were temporarily suspended. Maddie Garret broke this story Tuesday and has the latest.
Reporter: Maddie Garrett
Email Address: maddie.garrett@kxii.com
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DENISON, TX - There is new information on Air Safety Flight Academy, which announced yesterday that all operations were temporarily suspended. Maddie Garret broke this story Tuesday and has the latest.

Nine international students say ASFA owes them thousands of dollars, part of it for visa extensions they never got. The students from India did not want to appear on camera because their I-94 visas are expired.

The students say ASFA took $9,000 from them claiming it was to pay for extending their visas, but that never happened. Now they're worried about being forced to leave the country, and never receiving their pilots license, and having no hope of getting repayment from ASFA if they have to go back to India.

A former flight instructor who worked for Air Safety at their Glendale, Arizona, school says this same company suspended operations there too due to money problems, and eventually closed that facility altogether.

ASFA still hasn't returned our phone calls, but did release an official statement:

“Air Safety Flight Academy has temporarily suspended all operations. The suspension went into effect as of January 11th, 2010. Air Safety Flight Academy does not know the length of this suspension but hopes that it is short. The suspension is a direct result of the poor economy coupled with the fact that Air Safety’s two biggest Chinese clients owe Air Safety Flight Academy more than $2 million dollars. Air Safety is unable to carry the Chinese indebtedness and continue operations. What has further aggravated the situation is the paucity of available funding in the United States for domestic students to undergo commercial pilot training. This is a very difficult time we are experiencing and we hope that we can resume training this year.”

Grayson County College says they can remain in the dorms until the end of the month if ASFA doesn't pay the school.


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