When flight schools fill up with foreign trainees, authorities get nervous

Ekansh Tyagi, an 18-year-old from New Delhi and two of his fellow flight school students at Windsor, Ont. found themselves answering pointed queries about why they had journeyed so close to the American border. “They asked me if I was involved in terrorist activities and I just laughed,” says Tyagi. A dark complexion and an interest in aircraft is enough to raise suspicions these days.
Asia’s expanding economies have created a huge demand for new pilots, and with American skies still all but closed to foreign student flyers, companies north of the border are happily picking up the slack. Even if it means subjecting themselves — and their trainees — to the scrutiny of police, intelligence services, and security-obsessed members of the local community.
Aviation International Canada, the Guelph, Ont., flight school that Tyagi attends, started advertising its services in India a little over a year ago. It now has 29 foreign students enrolled in a one-year course for the licence and equipment ratings needed to fly commercial aircraft.
The school has been receiving regular visits from Guelph police, the OPP, RCMP, and CSIS. Staff pass along photocopies of all foreign applications, even their rejects.
Harvsair, which operates flight schools in the Winnipeg-area communities of Steinbach and St. Andrew’s, training some 250 foreign pilots a year, also finds itself under the microscope.
For the most part, the pilots-in-training seem unfazed by the occasional rude welcome. Devendra Sasne, a 22-year-old from Puna, near Mumbai, who arrived in Guelph in mid-October, says he expected the scrutiny.
Adam Penner, operations manager for Harvsair, bristles at the extra government attention that the foreign influx has attracted: “The Oklahoma City bombing proved that you have to watch out for white guys in vans, too,” he says.
06/12/06 Jonathon Gatehouse/Macleans, Canada