Flight school stalls after crash report
IT’S BEEN a three-way battle for Captain Errol Stewart, the operator of the 18-yearold Caribbean Aviation Training Centre, since the November 10, 2016 crash of his flight school plane.
Captain Jonathan Worton and trainee pilots Danshuvar Gilmore, 19, and Ramone Forbes, 17, died when the Cessna aircraft went down in Greenwich Town, Kingston, seconds after take-off.
Stewart had watched as the plane took off from the Tinson Pen Aerodrome in Kingston and saw trouble as it made an unusual turn, stalled, then plummeted.
Since then, he said the pain of the loss of lives has been a constant burden, and now with the release of an adverse report on the crash, he has been battling to defend his integrity and to take his books out of the red with the student population dwindling and tuition fees seemingly uncollectible.
To compound the issue, Stewart says the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority has suspended his licence for flight operations pending a recertification of the training centre, so now he can only carry out ground school training.
Stewart is coming from an average of 60 trainee pilots a year to around 14.
The 14 are seven fewer than the 21 he had more than a week before The Gleaner published the report on the flight school crash.
“Since the report, a number of parents have withdrawn their kids from the school,” said Stewart.
He further said he is completing the recertification requirements and, upon approval, he will conclude air training for the current students and then make a decision whether to remain open.
“For me and the flight school here, if we only have one student coming through, it’s one person we are showing the honesty of a career path in aviation,” he said.
Stewart also said he understands why the relatives would be pursuing legal action against his flight school.
“If I was a parent of that child, answers I want,” Stewart said. “I am ready to answer the truth.”