The fate of Taiwan's first civilian flight school, which began its maiden enrollment this April, is now up in the air at a time when its sponsor body is being reorganized following the May 25 crash of China Airlines Co (華航) flight CI611.
One of the results of the air tragedy in which all 225 people aboard were killed is that the China Aviation Development Foundation (CADF, 航發會) -- China Airlines' largest shareholder with a 72-percent stake in the airline -- has decided to sell off all its shares in China Airlines by the end of next year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) said last week.
Lin, who has been named the new CADF chairman in the wake of the crash -- one of four fatal air tragedies involving China Airlines in the past 10 years -- also gave all the CADF board members their marching orders, saying that the foundation will eventually be dissolved once it sells off its China Airlines shares and the airline becomes a fully private corporation.
The fate of the flight school will depend on decisions to be made by the foundation's new board of directors, Lin noted.
The CADF flight school, whose official designation is the Taiwan Aviation Training Center, is the first flight school to be established in Taiwan for the purpose of training civilian pilots.
The school originally planned to accept 100 students a year, offering flight lessons to students in four groups per year.
More than 170 people registered to be part of the first group of 25 students.
Lessons for the first group are scheduled to begin Aug. 5, with the training period expected to last for 18 months.
A preliminary board meeting is expected to be called soon mainly to choose members of the new board of directors of the CADF, according to Lin.
All the original CADF board members, including former CADF chairman Tsay Jaw-yang (蔡兆陽), resigned late last month to assume political responsibility for the May 25 crash.
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