Indian students duped by Aussie aviation school

MELBOURNE: Indian students, aspiring to be pilots have been left in the lurch by a Sydney-based aviation college as their dreams of acquiring commercial pilot license remained unfulfilled, even after paying thousands of dollars.

This latest scam has also came to light due to the exposures by ABC TV channel program 'Four Corners.'

In the expose, the channel showed migration and education agents duping Indian students of Aerospace Aviation College in Sydney that provides commercial pilot training.

With the civil aviation sector booming in India, there is a big demand for pilots in the country and thousands of students have flocked to foreign shores to get a qualified pilot license.

The program alleged that the college exploited international students besides ill treating Indian students.

Students who have signed up for a commercial pilots' license course that cost USD 43,500, Aerospace Aviation College must deliver 200 hours of flying over 52 weeks.

Many students alleged that they did not receive enough flying hours due to lack of facilities and unavailability of instructors.

A student of the Aerospace Aviation college, Surendra Egalapati alleged he only received 130 hours over an 18 month period.
 Former student Scott Alex said he was disturbed by the way the college was treating Indian students.

"It was definitely derogatory the way they spoke to them, the way they treated them," he said.

When asked if he could cite an example, he said "...instructors hating flying with curry eating Indian stinking yellow so on, and management, I know of a case where the operations manager actually pushed around a student who was complaining."

Interestingly, after breaking the scam on the TV program, there were raids at the office of Indian migration agent, who according to Australian police was involved in providing fake documents to students. But there were no report of any follow up against Aerospace Aviation that is run by Australian couple Sue and Zane Davis.

The program interviewed the mother of a student who alleged that after paying the entire fee of 43,000 Australian dollars, the college stopped imparting training and her son had to return back with an unfulfilled dream.

However, Sue Davis of the Aerospace Aviation refuted all the allegations and said: "We welcome having overseas students with us. They all bring delightful experience with them and we enjoy their time. May I add that our student of the year for the last two years have been Indians."

"We have provided everything that those students need to get through the course. The students need to provide the diligence, the dedication and the commitment." Davis added.

-PTI