Earth-bound Discover Air closes shop

Orlando Business Journal - April 25, 2003

 

SANFORD -- Just a little more than a month after the bankrupt and beleaguered Airline Training Academy Inc. shut its doors without warning, a Sanford charter air service owned by the same family has surrendered its license to the Federal Aviation Administration and abruptly closed up shop.

 

Discover Air, formerly based at Orlando Sanford Airport, shut down on April 11, according to the charter service's former manager, who says he was notified that day that he would be out of a job at 5 p.m.

 

"I received a phone call from (company president) Scott Williams, who explained they were closing the business and everybody would be paid through that Friday," says Tommy Barraza. "And everybody did get paid."

 

It is not immediately known what impact, if any, the closure will have on U.S. Bankruptcy Court efforts to preserve what assets Airline Training Academy has left. Airline Training Academy is listed as "the parent company" of Discover Air on a now-defunct Web site. Both companies were owned and operated by family members of James "Captain Jim" Williams, a former Delta pilot who founded the training school with his wife, Ruth.

 

Barazza admits Discover Air "had problems," but emphatically denies it was linked financially to the flight training school.

 

Peter Hill, an attorney with Wolff, Hill, McFarlin & Herron who is representing the Williams family, says the Airline Training Academy bankruptcy case has nothing to do with Discover Air.

 

"They are two separate cases," says Hill.

 

But the attorney representing about 300 students who filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against Airline Training Academy disagrees.

 

"We have evidence that money was being upstreamed from ATA to Discover Air," says Roy Kobert, a partner with Broad & Cassel.

 

Located in a lone portable far from Orlando Sanford's busy main terminals, the charter air service showed no outward signs of affluence on a recent visit. A dozen or so newly planted shrubs were baking in full sun, flanking a metal ramp that led into the building. Inside, assemble-yourself office furniture and half a dozen fake potted plants gave the feel of temporary quarters.

 

The real financial trouble, though, was on the tarmac. Discover Air only randomly had planes in the sky since October 2002. That month, inspectors with the FAA discovered that serial numbers on some parts on the planes didn't match the maintenance records.

 

In April, though, Discover Air requested that the FAA inspect one plane to return it to flying status.

But Christopher White, a spokesman for the FAA, says, "When we conducted the inspection, we found still more discrepancies -- and the next action was on April 15, when they surrendered their certificate. Basically, they said, 'All right -- we're not even going to try to get back in the air.'"

 

By then, Airline Training Academy already was being pushed into bankruptcy court by students, who say they are owed more than $7 million.

 

And that may be the next stop for Discover Air, as well, says Hill. The attorney says the charter air service also "would probably" end up in bankruptcy court.