Ravi Hegde paid a little over $40,000 [approx Rs 16,82,000] towards his dream of becoming a commercial pilot within a year.

Hegde's Mumbai-based parents had come up with half that amount, while the rest was in the form of a bank loan. The sum was paid to Study Abroad, a Chennai-based, an agency that recruits students for the Atwater, California-based American School of Aviation.

He arrived in the US in April. Over the next three months, he spent two hours on the simulator, and not a single minute behind the controls of an actual plane.

If that was frustrating, the events that followed were heartbreaking for Hegde and over a hundred other ASA students, including 20 girls, almost all of whom were from India.

Merced County officials refused to allow ASA, founded by Captain Manpreet 'Prince' Singh in 2002, to fly its planes for lack of insurance, and a fuel company filed a suit for the $52,000 [approx Rs 21,87,000] ASA owed it. To make matters worse, Merced County officials recently evicted the students from the hostel, after the water supply was cut for non-payment of bills.

Singh, who went to the US in 1995 as a student, said he would sell the Atwater company and start a new flight school in Sacramento. Some students clung to that hope, but the rest approached Indian consulate officials in San Francisco, and also the police.

Finally Reny Kozman, Singh's Egyptian wife and vice president of the company, informed the students on July 2 that the school had officially closed down, and that they would not be able to move the school to Sacramento. She notified the Federal Aviation Administration, the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS), and Transportation Security Administration, and told the students to contact SEVIS directly with respect to their changed status.

She also said all ASA properties will be sold, and 'refunds will be processed as per the court's direction,' according to Ashok Kumar Sinha, consul for community affairs at the Indian consulate in San Francisco.

Photographs: Some of the photographs submitted by students to the institute's web site.

Also see: Study Abroad: Got wings will fly

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