A Manitoba flight school was banned from training pilots “in the interest of public safety,” Transport Canada says, more than a year after a former instructor came forward with allegations the school failed to follow aviation rules and put students in “significant danger.”
Transport Canada cancelled the flight training unit operator certificate of Gimli-based LS Airways Flight Academy on Nov. 19, 2024.
The federal government department said in an email to CBC News that the certificate cancellation was a “serious action,” and is only taken when oversight and monetary penalties do not lead to compliance.
Wayne Liu said he and several other students alerted authorities about safety concerns at the school. They decided to report the school to Transport Canada in September 2023, he said.
“I really hope this [doesn’t] happen again to other students,” Liu said about why he spoke up.
WATCH | Gimli flight school put students in danger, whistleblower claims in lawsuit:
Lawsuits allege Manitoba flight school endangered students
His lawsuit is one of four filed against the school in the past year alleging that the Gimli flight school faked logs of flying hours, told students to fly with jerry cans of gasoline on board, altered maintenance records and exploited students.
The school’s owner, Noura Gharib, declined to be interviewed. She said in a phone call with CBC she intends to fight the revocation.
Liu first enrolled at the school to convert a U.S. flight instructor licence into a Canadian one, and taught at LS Airways for about a month in 2023 after passing a flight test.
But Liu says he should never have gotten the instructor rating, because LS Airways did not give him the number of flight hours needed to qualify for the certification in Canada.
The owner “never put me on the flight schedule,” Liu said.
“I [told] her … even though I have some experience, we still need to practise and meet requirements for the exam. Until two or three days before the flight test, she still never flew with me and [faked the] hours on the PTR.”
“PTR” stands for pilot training record, a logbook required to obtain pilot permits and ratings.
A pilot must complete a minimum of 30 hours of dual flight instruction (training where a certified instructor is in the aircraft) for a Class 4 instructor rating, among other requirements. Applicants receive some credits if they previously held that rating — through foreign accreditation, for example.
In lawsuit documents filed on May 23, 2025, Liu alleges that Gharib instructed him to record false numbers on the training record.
He said he needed 15 flight hours to qualify for the licence, but got just over one hour with a student — not a certified instructor.
“I was telling myself, ‘Hey, I shouldn’t do this,'” he said. “I accepted her wrongful instruction.… I was so regretful I did those wrong things.”
Liu, from Taiwan, trained as a pilot in the U.S. and taught at a flight school in Georgia before coming to Canada, planning to eventually settle in the country. He was under a lot of stress to get his Canadian instructor’s licence because he wanted to get a job in aviation and then bring his family to live with him, he said.
Liu said that after he came forward, government officials told him his instructor rating was no longer valid and that he had to go to a different flight school to get it back.
The school “took all my savings,” he said. The lawsuit says LS Airways wrongfully accepted $15,495.54 in tuition payments.
“I was expecting like, hey, just follow the rules, go to a flight school, get my instructor rating … so I can get more hours, then moving on to maybe charters.”
Liu now wants the money he paid for tuition at LS Airways back, so he can reapply for the training he needs to become an instructor in Canada.
“Because of this school, I feel so depressed,” he said. “It’s like I couldn’t complete my plan — wasted money and time here.”
A public post from Sept. 9 on Transport Canada’s website shows the flight school — identified as 10113158 Manitoba Ltd., its business registry number — was fined $28,500 for three counts of violating Canada’s aviation regulations.
The violations are related to transporting people or cargo without being certified to do so, operating an aircraft without proper registration and failing to meet personnel record requirements.
The charges stemmed from incidents between July and August of 2023, according to a decision issued by Transport Canada last May, which mentions the school didn’t keep proper records for Liu as an assigned flight instructor.
The fines were outstanding as of Jan. 25, and the school had not filed for a review, federal court documents say.
The unauthorized transport service violation is related to operations from Gimli to Island Lake and Little Grand Rapids in eastern Manitoba on July 24, 2023.
This month, Transport Canada made two more violations public. In March 2024, the company let an aircraft take off when it had not been maintained in accordance with an approved maintenance schedule, or in accordance with “airworthiness limitations,” according to Transport Canada.
The two violations resulted in $18,000 in additional fines.
In his lawsuit, Liu alleges the school required students to keep “incorrect maintenance paperwork” that left out operational time used to calculate oil changes.
Liu’s lawsuit also alleges LS Airways directed students to travel to a flight test in Lindsay, Ont., with five 20-litre jerry cans of fuel in the cabin to avoid charges at the Lindsay airport. The lawsuit calls that a “serious safety violation” that exposed students to “significant danger.”
No statement of defence has been filed, and the allegations haven’t been tested in court.
LS Airways advertised itself as a “designated learning institution-registered Canadian flight school” on its now-unavailable website. The designated learning institution, or DLI, status allows Canadian schools to host international students.
A spokesperson for the provincial government, which manages designated learning institutions in Manitoba, said in an email the province revoked LS Airways’ DLI status on March 18, 2024, following an investigation launched in January of that year.
The spokesperson said the investigation found there had been an unreported change in ownership. Since the designation is non-transferable between owners, the school’s DLI status was revoked.
The ownership change had happened “several years earlier,” the provincial spokesperson said. LS Airways applied for a new DLI status, but the application is presently paused, according to the spokesperson.
“The department is prepared to resume its review once LS Airways has resolved any and all outstanding items with Transport Canada,” the spokesperson said.
The Canadian Civil Aircraft Register shows 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 LS Airways student claims he entered an agreement with Gharib to teach at the school once he got his instructor rating there. His suit alleges that Gharib unilaterally dismissed him after he complained about the services the school provided.
The statement of claim also alleges, among other things, that Gharib falsified training records with another instructor who was not Liu.
In a statement of defence, Gharib denied all allegations in the December lawsuit.
Another lawsuit was filed on Feb. 20 by a different student, who claims she was employed as a part-time dispatcher at the school and was also unjustly dismissed after complaining.
The student alleges she was not allowed to fly, despite paying $1,600 in fees. She claims she also had to pay for fuel out-of-pocket twice and wasn’t reimbursed, and that she didn’t get her money back after paying fees for a flight test she didn’t complete.
The student also said she was also never given a pilot training record, despite numerous requests.
In another statement of defence, Gharib denied all the allegations in the February lawsuit, saying the student was never employed by the school.
Gharib countersued the student for defamation, saying in court documents the student failed multiple flight tests and disclosed a “history of dangerous manoeuvres” at a previous school.
And another lawsuit, filed by a student from Thailand on April 24, said that flight instructors at the school lacked valid teaching licences and had obtained them through processes “not evidently in compliance with” regulations.
The school denied the allegation in a statement of defence. It said it “meticulously maintained” all required documentation, including instructor credentials and aircraft records, and that it conducted maintenance “strictly in accordance” with approved procedures.
None of the allegations contained in the four lawsuits filed by students have been tested in court.
Meanwhile, Liu said he would still like to bring his family, including his four-year-old child, to Canada, but his future is still up in the air.
“I’m still struggling about my plan. I don’t know what can I do,” he said.
“[The] whole school stuff kind of [broke] everything. If the owner … just [followed] the rules, this wouldn’t happen.”
