Mr. Minister please do something……… Open letters to Vayalar Ravi from parents of stranded ASA students

Education, Travel / By / American School of Aviation, Aviation Academy, Aviation School, Commercial Pilot License, Commercial Pilot Training Programme, CPL, DGCA, letter to minister, Minister for the overseas Indian affairs, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Overseas study, Parents of ASA students, Shri D.N. Srivastava, Shri G Gurucharan, Shri K. Mohandas, stranded students, Study abroad, Study In US, Travel, US Department of Homeland Security, Vayalar Ravi / 2 Comments /

  • S.D.Hegde,Mumbai // July 8, 2008 at 2:43 pm

    Dear Sir,
    The authorities Of “ASA” closed the school from May 2008 (15th May ).
    They admitted my son on 1st May & took from him $41000 / = & they told school would not be closed. Now they are not returning the money & saying closing the business is not difficult in America & leaving innocent students stranded & their parents in deep worries.
    American Govt. immediately help giving some money to join other Flying school which will be returned to the Govt.after getting the money from “ASA” through court.
    Indian Minister in charge of this affairs has said he would look after the case & we hope immediate action from him & hope to receive a reply.
    It is the biggest aviation school scam in America.

  • Gordon D’Mello // July 8, 2008 at 9:53 pm

    Dear Sir
    My son Mikhail D’Mello joined ASA in Sep 2007. According to the contract they were to complete the course in 6-8 months. It is now over 10 months that the boy is there and they have not even completed the Private Pilot stage. They have USD 26,000 still lying with them from the 38,000 USD paid to them. Shifting the boy to another school is going to cost us another 30,000 USD, not including USD 600 per month as living expense. We have mortaged our homes to fulfill the boys dreams and career ambitions. How are we to organise such a huge sum again to complete the course? We plead that the government provide or organise some funds for these misfortunate aspiring young pilots of the age group 18-21. They are far too young to bear the trauma they have undergone, and some help from the government will be the only source to heal their wounds.

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2 thoughts on “Mr. Minister please do something……… Open letters to Vayalar Ravi from parents of stranded ASA students”

  1. Richard Saldanha

    Respected Sir

    Let us first introduce ourselves: we are Richard and Juliet Saldanha and our son, Fabian Saldanha, who was enrolled in the American School of Aviation, California where he was clocking flight hours to obtain his private flying license, Engine rating training and a commercial pilot license.

    We had paid $40,000 in tuition fees, which was transferred in its entirety to the school at the beginning of the training. With the school shutting down, my child’s future now hangs in the balance.

    Fabian has worked very hard in obtaining excellent grades to reach this position in his academic career. After successfully passing his +2 exams with 70% marks from Alva’s Pre-University College, Moodbidri, he finally settled on ASA to pursue his dreams of becoming a pilot one day. But we are sure there are other students like my son who are in a similar situation since ASA closed its doors.

    The current plight of the 120 children is very tragic, and concerned school authorities like Mrs. Reny Kozman and the Principal Director Mr Manpreet Singh have all but abandoned their students.

    Declaring bankruptcy was the next step in this sorry saga; and while the American courts battle this out, the lives of these 120 children and their future hangs in the balance. For parents like myself, who have worked hard to obtain the sufficient funds in educating our children and seeing their dream fulfilled, this comes as a very hard blow. We have mortgaged our properties and have no sufficient means to transfer Fabian to another school and scrape together another hefty tuition amount.

    We implore you, and the concerned authorities to step in and rectify this matter. Maybe the government could help facilitate other aviation schools in the US to absorb these children and allow them to finish their training through a government funded grant. It is only through your networking, support and backing will parents like us be able to find full justice and manage to salvage the hopes and futures of these 120 children.

    Yours sincerely,
    Richard and Juliet Saldanha
    Parents of Fabian Saldanha

  2. Leopold

    I am Leopold Arambam from Manipur, India. So far till now there are very less people from north eastern region to take up pilot as profession. The region being, the financial condition, lack of opportunity or not informed. The majority of the people living in these north eastern regions are middle class family and many below poverty line. We have to take a immense decision in order to step into this field. Since the national banks came up with the policy of providing education loans to the aspiring youngsters, I took this opportunity to follow my dreams.
    My parents are govt. employees and they are well professionals in their field. My Mum is a doctorate in Horticulture (Associate Professor in Agriculture university) and my Dad is the child welfare officer in social welf dept. and holds double MA in bioscience and human resources. They cannot afford to send me for the pilot training in US being a middle class family of 5 ( I have 2 more siblings). So i took educational loan and came here, mortgaging the family property hoping that I will get a FAA cpl and go back home and get a job and will be able to return the money back to the bank.
    Now the situation at present is a NIGHTMARE. The school shut down and on the top of that "The Authority" isn't ready to give back $24000 left in the account. They did promise the students before coming to US that the course will be completed in 6-8 months. I have been here for more than 10 months now and I haven't got my Private license yet. I don't doubt the training I got. The school was good at maintain standards but very slow and worse before shutting down. I was with the school till the end as I didn't want to loose that big sum of mine even though it takes me ages to complete my course. The school declared "shut down" at the end with a final goodbye message sent to all the students.
    Right now I am stuck at the moment neither wanting to go back home at the same time, having little hope to still follow my dreams. Many of my friends have left the country due to financial reasons and I doubt I am going to do the same.
    If anyone is reading this, please have some mercy on us and help us. There are 100 + students and many like me , who are stranded due to the school closure.

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