Flight School Woes Affect Foreign Students

A California flight school's financial woes are threatening the training futures of dozens of foreign flight students. Mazzei Flying Service, of Fresno, is out of money and is suspending almost all training effective immediately. Students from Taiwan, Indonesia and India who are training to become airline pilots back home have an uncertain future. "As of Monday, we met with the students and told them we were ceasing all full-time flight training," Mazzei President Mark Addis told the Fresno Bee. "We are finishing training for a small number of students…who are close to the end of the program."

The students paid tens of thousands of dollars up front for training and some have filed formal complaints. But Addis said resuming the regular tempo of training "is not feasible at the moment." He said the school is not closed but other than finishing off those relatively few students it's not flying. The exact number of students, foreign and American, was not released but there are about 40 Taiwanese alone. Addis said the decision was a difficult one precipitated by the collapse of an investment deal last week.