Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Apr 2: A number of Indian trainees who are undergoing commercial pilot licence training at CAE-Phoenix Aviation Academy at Mesa in Arizona, USA, under the IndiGo air cadet pilot programme of IndiGo Airlines, are now unable to move out. They have now become panicky about their future.

Out of 350 trainees, about 150 are Indians. Two each among them are from Bengaluru and Mangaluru. Their parents have appealed to the Prime Minster, Narendra Modi and other officials through letters to ensure that the children are safely brought back to India as they have no security at the training institute.

Balvinder Virdi, a Punjabi businessman from Mangaluru says that his son Prabhjot Singh, had left for the USA in December 2018 to undergo the 54-week training programme. The training was to conclude in January this year, but it is unfinished. Coronavirus has been spreading fast in the USA but lockdown has not been enforced there, he claims. He is apprehensive that if lockdown is declared there, the trainees will find it difficult to get scholarship and residential facility. Because the course period has been extended, the parents are facing additional financial burden, Virdi rues.

He said that the institute where the training is going on has not taken any measures to ensure safety of the trainees, and they have not been provided with protective gear like masks, hand gloves, sanitisers etc. In spite of difficulties, the trainees are asked to perform one to two hours of flying training every day. As all the students stay together, there is risk of virus spreading to everyone if one of them is infected. Therefore, he said they are making efforts to safely bring the students back to India.