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.
“I had already paid for 200 hours of flying but finished only 185 hours before the school was temporarily shut, yet the school did not release my Flight Training Progress Report (FTPR) until I paid another ₹1.5 lakh for my hostel fees. I had no choice but to do so, and then pay an additional ₹16 lakh to finish the remaining training at another flying school,” Mr. Datta told The Hindu from Hyderabad.
RedBird has an estimated 450 students, according to a senior official of the academy who didn’t want to be identified. Flight training takes place at five of its bases — Baramati, Gulbarga, Lilabari, Belgaum and Seoni. There is also a base in Sri Lanka.
With his father set to retire in the next two years, and pilot training being a costly affair that often requires families to take loans of ₹60 lakh to ₹1 crore, Mr. Datta was under pressure and couldn’t waste any time waiting for the school to reopen after re-certification. The completion of flying training at RedBird is just one of the many steps before trainees become airline pilots. The training is followed by “type-rating” or training on a specific type of aircraft flown by airlines such as Airbus A320 or Boeing 737. Subsequently, there is an airline training in lieu of a stipend. These two steps, the including documentation work, could take at least 9-12 months.
Since RFTA is the only school that trains its students on single-engine Tecnam aircraft, switching schools means additional flying hours on new equipment such as a Cessna 172. Moreover, many flight checks have an expiration date before which students need to commence the next stage of training, and if they fail to do so, they need to undergo those checks all over again. Additional flying means more expense.
“Having flown just 50 hours and then being forced to take a three-month sabbatical is practically ensuring the students have forgotten everything they learnt,” said another student of RedBird from Indore.
A third student The Hindu spoke to complained about the lack of transparency and clarity regarding the time it will take for the re-certification process to complete. “Every time we ask our academy about the date of resumption of training, we are told it will happen within a week. We are given varying reasons such as DGCA officials being away on a condolence meet or being occupied with the inspection of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft or discussions pertaining to the impact of 5G rollout on aircraft operations as well as the four-day WingsIndia aero show in Hyderabad from January 18 to 21,” the student said.
Trainee pilots are also worried that they will lose precious time when various airlines in the country are ramping up recruitment.
“Hundreds of aircraft are being ordered to expand airline fleet, and pilot hiring is at an all-time high. Pilot hiring follows a boom-and-bust cycle, and we miss this opportunity who knows when we will get a chance again? We want to join this race but our legs have been cut off,” said another student The Hindu spoke to.
A senior official of the RFTA told The Hindu on the condition of anonymity, “The DGCA has audited all our five bases, following which we have finished rectification work. DGCA’s re-certification formalities were concluded on December 22 and we were expecting a formal approval to follow soon. We can communicate the date of reopening to our students only if we receive any clarity from the DGCA.”
A senior DGCA official said that there were gaps found during the recertification process, and the time frame for lifting the suspension on the school will depend on “RedBird’s alacrity in complying with regulatory requirements”.
On request for refunds, the RFTA official said that the academy could only process refunds when flights restart, which is a pre-requisite defined by its banks for extending cash.
