From African Pilot Newsletter No 3-26:
Police open second FTC arson case
According to the Midrand Reporter: ‘The police are investigating two cases of arson at Guy Jackson’s property. The first fire, which gutted the garage that held valuable documents of the now defunct Flight Training College, was on 22 May. The second fire was 10 days later, and this time the entire house and its contents were burnt. Jackson said he had received death threats following the financial collapse of FTC. Many students had paid up front and lost the money they had invested in their training.’ Directly quoted from the Midrand Reporter.
Global Flight Training (Pty) Ltd – Jackson again
Jackson started another flight training school at Grand Central, which moved to Rand Airport shortly after its formation. According to information received this school has also ‘ceased operations’ and the Civil Aviation Authority has suspended the training licence of Global Flight Training. Airport manager, Mr. Kruger says that landing fees and rent are outstanding. Head of flight training operations at the Civil Aviation Authority, Peter Volland, told African Pilot that the SACAA may not interfere in the financial affairs of training organisations, but that some sort of control was long overdue in order to safeguard the investment that students make when they choose a particular flying training establishment. Whilst there are many excellent training schools in South Africa, that are managed honestly, there are bound to be those few exceptions. Volland believes that the return of the ‘Air Service Licence Council’ to this particular sector is long overdue. ‘There are good operators and bad operators in every part of aviation and training schools seem to have attracted their fair share of operational disasters. The CAA is mainly interested in the safe operation of training schools’ said Volland.