Indigenous pilot training school loses entire fleet in airport fire

Canada's only training program for Indigenous pilots has lost its entire fleetafter an airport hangar on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory was destroyed in a fire.

It began at Tyendinaga Mohawk Airport around 11 p.m. on Feb. 24, and the 40,000-square-foot hangar collapsed within minutes, according toMohawk Fire Department Chief Scott Maracle.

The First Nations Technical Institute on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory,near Belleville, Ont.,has operated a flight program at the hangar for First Nations, Mtis and Inuit students since 1989.

The fire destroyed the school's13 planes, as well as all of its equipment used to maintain aircraft.

Maracle saidthe building burned too quickly to be saved a construction featurepreferredby the Department of Defence during the Second World War.

"They were designed to just collapse on themselves and not affect anything else," he said.

Pilots needed by remote communities

The pilot training program was createdto meet the need for more Indigenous pilots, according to president Suzanne Brant, who added thatstudents come from all over Canada to attend the program.

"The students come here to get their licence to be able to fly, so they can directly go into the industry," said Brant. "They can start commercial flights as soon as they want. They mostly get employed before they even leave."

Students often provideair transport services to remote Indigenous communities, Brant said, including thosenot accessible by road, whichdepend on pilots to fly in food, medical supplies and people.

Theprogram is essential not justto the careers of aspiring pilots, but also forthe communities they go on to serve.

"It's their link, you know, to the rest of the world. So it's significant, not only for employment, but also for those resources that get mobilized in and out of communities."

The program is temporarily paused and applications are closed, she said.

The school is currently liaisingwith the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, as well as the Minister of Indigenous Affairs in Ontario, to explore ways to get the program off the ground again, saidBrant.

The cause of the fire is still beinginvestigated, according to the fire department.