‘It’s terrible to see grown men in tears’

“I can’t describe how bad it is. It’s terrible to see grown men in tears. People are feeling highly depressed here. The mental strain is terrible. We loved this course. We’re devastated.”

So says 18-year-old Conor Deeny, from Derry. He’s one of the 80 Irish trainee pilots who are victims of the collapse of Waterford’s Pilot Training College (PTC) course in Florida 12 days ago.

The trainees are aged 17-35, with just five women. Some have children and left high-paid jobs in IT taking out enormous personal loans to pursue their dream of flying.

Others were funded by parents who re-mortgaged their homes and plundered their life savings in the hope their child could be a pilot.

Since Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) told the students 12 days ago that they wouldn’t be flying again, the Waterford operation has been stripped of Irish Aviation Association (IAA) accreditation and it’s believed a number of engineers in Waterford were made redundant yesterday.

It has been confirmed that Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) has been left with an unpaid bill of $1.2m for providing training, board and accommodation to the PTC trainee pilots. Yet PTC CEO Mike Edgeworth yesterday continued to accuse FIT of “non-performance” and of not having carried out their contractual duties in a “timely and professional manner”.

It also emerged that despite their worsening cash situation, Capt Edgeworth’s organisation continued to take money from trainee pilots and sent them out to Florida to begin their training a fortnight ago.

Thomas Jennings is from Leap in West Cork. He’s also 18.

“Its just so boring,” he said. “We’re doing nothing and PTC have made no contact with us in days. We’re just waiting all the time. They’ve just left us here.

“At this stage, I think it would be a miracle to get some money back.”

Conor and Thomas both travelled to Florida in November. Conor has done 50 hours of flying. He needs to do 175 hours before he can sit his professional exams.