Manitoba’s flight school was prohibited to train pilots “in the interest of public safety,” says Transport Canada, more than a year after a former instructor presented accusations that the school could not follow the aviation rules and put the students in “significant danger.”
Transport Canada canceled the certificate of the operator of the Flight Training Unit of LS Airways Academy, based in Gimli, on November 19, 2024.
The federal government department said in an email to CBC News that the cancellation of the certificate was a “serious action” and is only taken when monetary supervision and sanctions do not lead to compliance.
Wayne Liu said that he and several other students alerted the authorities about school security concerns. They decided to inform school to transport Canada in September 2023, he said.
“I really expect this [doesn’t] It happens again to other students, “Liu said about why he spoke.
Look | Gimli Flight School put students in danger, complaint claims of complaint in demand:
Transport Canada says that it has suspended certification for a Gimli flight school in the interest of public safety. Several demands presented by former students allege the students exploited by the LS Airways school and did not follow the aviation rules.
His demand is one of the four presented against the school in the last year claiming that the Gimli flight school pretended trunks of flight hours, he told students to fly with Jerry gasoline cans on board, altered maintenance records and exploited students.
The owner of the school, Noura Gharib, declined to be interviewed. She said in a phone call with CBC that she intends to fight revocation.
‘So regret’: student
Liu was registered for the first time at school to convert an American flight instructor license into a Canadian, and taught LS Airways for approximately one month in 2023 after spending a flight test.
But Liu says that he should never have obtained the instructor’s rating, because LS Airways did not give him the amount of flight hours necessary to qualify for certification in Canada.
The owner “never put me on the flight schedule,” Liu said.
“YO [told] She … even though I have some experience, we still need to practice and meet the requirements for the exam. Up to two or three days before the flight test, she never flew with me and [faked the] hours in the PTR “.
“PTR” means pilot training record, a registration book required to obtain pilot permits and grades.
He told myself: “Hey, I shouldn’t do this.”– Wayne Liu, former LS Airways flight instructor
A pilot must complete a minimum of 30 hours of double flight instruction (training where a certified instructor is on the aircraft) for a class 4 instructor rating, among other requirements. Applicants receive some credits if they previously supported that qualification, for example, through foreign accreditation.
In the demand documents submitted on May 23, 2025, Liu alleges that Gharib told him to register false numbers in the Training Registry.
He said he needed 15 hours of flight to qualify for the license, but got just over an hour with a student, not a certified instructor.
“He told myself: ‘Hey, I shouldn’t do this,'” he said. “I accepted its unfair instruction … I was so regretful that I did those wrong things.”
The company fined more than $ 46k
Liu, from Taiwan, trained as a pilot in the United States and taught at a flight school in Georgia before coming to Canada, finally planning to settle in the country. He was under a lot of stress to obtain his Canadian instructor license because he wanted to get a job in aviation and then take his family to live with him, he said.
Liu said that after he presented himself, government officials told him that his instructor rating was no longer valid and that he had to go to a different flight school to recover it.
The school “took all my savings,” he said. The demand says that LS Airways unfairly accepted $ 15,495.54 in registration payments.
“I was waiting, hey, just follow the rules, go to a flight school, get my instructor rating … so that I can get more hours and then spend to perhaps Charters.”
Liu now wants the money he paid for the registration in LS Airways back, so that he can request the training he needs to become an instructor in Canada.
“Due to this school, I feel so depressed,” he said. “It’s as if I couldn’t complete my plan: lost money and time here.”
A public publication of September 9, Canada transport website It shows the flight school, identified as 10113158 Manitoba Ltd., its commercial registration number, received a fine of $ 28,500 for three positions of violating the aviation regulations of Canada.
The violations are related to the transport of people or load without being certified to do so, operate an aircraft without the proper registration and not comply with the personnel registration requirements.
The charges were derived from the incidents between July and August 2023, according to a decision issued by Transport Canada last May, which mentions that the school did not keep the appropriate records for Liu as assigned flight instructor.
The fines were pending as of January 25, and the school had not requested a review, say the Federal Court documents.
The violation of the unauthorized transport service is related to operations from Gimli to Island Lake and Little Grand Rapids in East Manitoba on July 24, 2023.
This month, Transport Canada made two more violations public. In March 2024, the company allowed an aircraft to take off when it had not agreed with an approved maintenance program or according to the “aircraft limitations,” according to Transport Canada.
The two violations resulted in $ 18,000 in additional fines.
In his demand, Liu alleges that the school requires students to maintain “incorrect maintenance paper” that is out of the operational time used to calculate oil changes.
Liu’s demand also alleges that LS Airways ordered students to travel to a flight test in Lindsay, Ontario, with five 20 -liter Jerry fuel cans in the cabin to avoid charges at Lindsay airport. The demand calls that a “serious security violation” that exposed students to “significant danger.”
No defense declaration has been submitted, and the accusations have not been tested in the Court.
Demands filed by another 3 students
LS Airways was announced as a “registered Canadian flight school of the designated learning institution” on its website now not available. The designated learning institution, or DLI, the State allows Canadian schools to house international students.
A spokesman for the provincial government, who manages designated learning institutions in Manitoba, said in an email that the province revoked the state of DLI of LS Airways on March 18, 2024, after an investigation launched in January of that year.
The spokesman said the investigation found that there had been a change not reported on the property. Since the designation is not transferable among the owners, the DLI state of the school was revoked.
The change of property had happened “several years before,” said the provincial spokesman. LS Airways requested a new DLI state, but the application is currently stopped, according to the spokesman.
“The department is prepared to resume its review once LS Airways has resolved each and every one of the outstanding articles with Canada Transport,” said the spokesman.
The Canadian civil plane Registration shows that two Cessnas that once belonged to LS Airways were no longer owned by the school as of June.
A lawsuit filed in December by another former student of LS Airways states that he entered an agreement with Gharib to teach at school once he obtained his instructor qualification there. His demand claims that Gharib dismissed him unilaterally after he complained about the services provided by the school.
The claim statement also alleges, among other things, that Gharib falsified the training records with another instructor that was not Liu.
In a defense statement, Gharib denied all accusations in the December demand.
A different student was filed for a lawsuit on February 20, who states that she was used as part -time dispatcher at school and was also unjustly dismissed after complaining.
The student alleges that he was not allowed to fly, despite paying $ 1,600 in rates. She states that she also had to pay for fuel outside her pocket and was not reimbursed, and that she did not recover her money after paying rates for a flight test that she did not complete.
The student also said that he was not given a pilot training record, despite numerous applications.
In another defense statement, Gharib denied all the accusations in the February demand, saying that the student was never used by the school.
Gharib responded to the student by defamation, saying that in the judicial documents the student failed multiple flight tests and revealed a “history of dangerous maneuvers” in a previous school.
And another demand, presented by a student from Thailand on April 24, said that the school’s flight instructors lacked valid teaching licenses and had obtained them through processes “not obviously complying with the regulations.”
The school denied the accusation in a defense statement. He said that “it meticulously” all the required documentation, including the credentials of the instructor and the aircraft records, and that he carried out the maintenance “strictly agree” with the approved procedures.
None of the accusations contained in the four demands filed by the students has been tested in the Court.
Meanwhile, Liu said he would still like to take his family, including his four -year -old son, Canada, but his future is still in the air.
“I’m still fighting my plan. I don’t know what I can do,” he said.
“[The] Things from all over school [broke] all. If the owner … only [followed] The rules, this would not happen. “
