Pivot Air & the DR

Discuss topics relating to airlines.

Moderators: sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, North Shore

Liftdump
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 322
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2004 9:34 pm
Location: Earth

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by Liftdump »

I’m no legal beagle, but is there any recourse for these people ,can they sue the DR government? Is that even a thing The conditions sounded horrid.
---------- ADS -----------
 
User avatar
Bede
Rank 11
Rank 11
Posts: 4427
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2004 5:52 am

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by Bede »

Liftdump wrote: Fri Nov 11, 2022 5:53 pm I’m no legal beagle, but is there any recourse for these people ,can they sue the DR government? Is that even a thing The conditions sounded horrid.
Nope. No recourse unfortunately.
---------- ADS -----------
 
hithere
Rank 7
Rank 7
Posts: 520
Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 8:05 am

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by hithere »

There was absolutely no movement on this file until Alpa National put an all points bulletin out to all the pilots at airlines they represent in Canada and the USA(65,000 plus members) advising them to exercise extra diligence when operating into Dominican Republic. They mentioned the Pivot crew in the email and how one's democratic rights could not be guaranteed in the event of an incident in DR. The following day it was announced that magically the Pivot crew would be released. I guess when you have all the United/Delta/Jetblue/Fedex etc pilots onboard sh!t starts happening pretty quick. Too bad the bulletin did not come out earlier but I'm sure there were legal reasons why it did not. Hopefully the Air Canada pilots see the strength in numbers that this demonstrated and commit to joining Alpa
---------- ADS -----------
 
birddogged
Rank 0
Rank 0
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2019 7:32 am

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by birddogged »

I reckon the W5 crew down there working on the story had a little bit to do with it.

So all of you who were casting aspersions on some/all of the crew - why so quiet now?
---------- ADS -----------
 
co-joe
Rank 11
Rank 11
Posts: 4562
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2004 2:33 am
Location: YYC 230 degree radial at about 10 DME

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by co-joe »

And remember to check those E and E bays on your preflight!
---------- ADS -----------
 
User avatar
Chaxterium
Rank 7
Rank 7
Posts: 645
Joined: Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:28 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by Chaxterium »

co-joe wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 3:26 pm And remember to check those E and E bays on your preflight!
Right. But if you find anything make sure not to report it until you're in friendly airspace.
---------- ADS -----------
 
pelmet
Top Poster
Top Poster
Posts: 7138
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2005 2:48 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by pelmet »

Mystery surrounds firm that chartered Canadian plane found with cocaine in Dominican

Pivot Airlines was in crisis mode.

Their crew had discovered and reported contraband hidden on the charter firm’s plane in the Dominican Republic — then were promptly arrested and jailed along with the seven Alberta-based passengers.

The company that chartered the aircraft for just under $100,000 had communicated briefly with Pivot in the 24 hours or so following the incident. But when airline CEO Eric Edmondson emailed his contact with “Trust Capital” a day later, he received no response, says Edmondson’s vice president. And Pivot hasn’t heard from that person since, the airline says.

Trust Capital itself seems just as ephemeral. It claimed a location in a downtown Toronto office building though the landlord told the National Post it has no record of it ever having been a tenant. It has no apparent presence online and no listing with federal, or several provincial corporate registries. Its email and the phone number for contact person John Strudwick are out of service.

The crew and passengers are now back in Canada , finally allowed to leave the Dominican Republic after a seven-month ordeal that included days in crowded jail cells, where some of the Canadians were threatened by violent fellow inmates.

But mysteries remain about the attempt to smuggle 210 kilograms of cocaine on a flight to Toronto. One involves the Canadian connection: who was going to retrieve the drugs — with an estimated street value of some $25 million — if they made it here?

And another is the background of the company that chartered the plane to fly what it said were potential investors to the Caribbean country for a five-day vacation.

Pivot Airlines employees, left to right, Alexander Rozov, Bal Krishna Dubey, Cpt. Robert DiVenanzo and Aatif Safdar laugh after their arrival back to Canada at Toronto Pearson International Airport, Thursday December 1, 2022. The crew had been detained in the Dominican Republic after reporting a bag of cocaine onboard their plane in April of this year.
Pivot Airlines employees, left to right, Alexander Rozov, Bal Krishna Dubey, Cpt. Robert DiVenanzo and Aatif Safdar laugh after their arrival back to Canada at Toronto Pearson International Airport, Thursday December 1, 2022. The crew had been detained in the Dominican Republic after reporting a bag of cocaine onboard their plane in April of this year.


Pivot says it has little information about its client.

What it’s certain about, though, is the impact the Dominican episode had on the fledgling airline, whose only jet was stranded for months in the Caribbean.

“We collectively feel like we were victims of a crime,” said Pivot vice president Brock Henderson. “And particularly our crew members, who paid a huge price for this, separated from their families for seven months.”

Khaled Rahime, an Edmonton-based pop singer who has opened for the likes of rap star Cardi B, took the Pivot flight to the Dominican Republic but left after only a couple of days.

He says he and his friends on the flight are “absolutely” innocent victims as well. Calling it an “open investigation,” Rahime said he’d love to talk about the episode but cannot.

“I wasn’t a part of anything. We had no part in anything,” said Rahime. “Wrong people, wrong time.… I’m not a criminal, I have no criminal record.”

A spokesman for the RCMP’s Ontario branch said the force does not confirm or deny the existence of an active investigation.

The saga began when a Pivot mechanic discovered a strange bag in the CRJ-100’s avionics bay, a compartment accessed from outside the plane, just before it was to leave Punta Cana on April 5. The airline reported the find to the RCMP and local police, who eventually fished out eight bags containing cocaine from the space. Then they arrested all the jet’s occupants. They were held in jail for days, before being released on bail but barred from leaving the Dominican Republic. The Canadians were finally allowed to go when prosecutors dropped the investigation into them last month.

The company calling itself Trust Capital actually hired the plane earlier this year, for a similar trip to the Dominican city of La Romana, said Henderson.

Someone identified in his email signature as John Strudwick, CFO of Trust Capital, said the company wanted to arrange a three-day trip for “a couple of our client groups coming in from USA and Dubai,” according to a copy of the message provided to the National Post.

Henderson said the person later explained that that trip and the second one to Punta Cana were designed to encourage potential backers to invest in his company, though the Pivot executive said he was on the first flight and the passengers — all in their 20s and 30s — didn’t strike him as investor types.

The passengers on the second trip flew from Edmonton to Toronto, where they boarded the Pivot flight at the end of March. A different crew — the one that ended up arrested — came down to fly them back on April 5.

A 29-year-old Edmonton man was on both flights, said Henderson. He could not be reached for comment.

Rob DiVenanzo, the captain, said he always wondered why the group didn’t just take a plane directly from Edmonton to Punta Cana.

In both cases, the payments — about $100,000 each — were wired from a B.C. numbered company, said Henderson. The one director listed in provincial corporate records for that firm appears to be an Edmonton businessman. He could not be reached for comment.

John Strudwick listed Trust Capital as being located at 250 Yonge St., an office building connected to Toronto’s Eaton Centre Mall. But Lawrence Barrett, senior director of leasing at landlord Cadillac Fairview, said no company by that name has ever been a tenant in the tower. Agile Virtual Offices, which rents temporary office space in the building, said they also have no record of Trust Capital as a customer.

Meanwhile, no company called Trust Capital is listed with the federal corporate registry, or those in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.

The email that Pivot used to contact Strudwick as recently as April bounces back now, having a domain name that is not valid. The phone number they used is “not assigned.”

The Post was unable to reach any of the seven passengers on the return flight. A Calgary man who had at one point started a GoFundMe campaign for his cousin and pleaded her case in the media while she was held in the Dominican Republic said the woman did not want to talk to reporters.

“She’s got no further comments for the media,” he said. “She’s just trying to move on with her life, really…. She’s kind of over it, she’s home, she just wants to live her life.”

A woman who identified herself as a family member of another passenger said that person had retained a lawyer, but declined to provide the lawyer’s name.

© Provided by National Post
---------- ADS -----------
 
hawker driver
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:49 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by hawker driver »

Just watched the W5 story tonight and can tell you I will be avoiding Signature in YYZ until that ramp manager and the company answer some questions that W5 had.
---------- ADS -----------
 
DanWEC
Rank 10
Rank 10
Posts: 2311
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2009 1:05 pm
Location: 404

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by DanWEC »

hawker driver wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 7:13 pm Just watched the W5 story tonight and can tell you I will be avoiding Signature in YYZ until that ramp manager and the company answer some questions that W5 had.
Right? Blatantly sketchy. The charter customer was a fake company as well, and passengers were literally 50% convicted drug traffickers.
A lot of bad actors here. There are likely several more... but damn. Good work so far by W5.
So airport employees using airport vehicles loaded up the plane... I wonder how much money Julio Iglasias really makes from his airport? ;)
---------- ADS -----------
 
PRM1
Rank 2
Rank 2
Posts: 90
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2016 6:38 am

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by PRM1 »

Funny how W5 completely ignored the criminal past of the FO…
---------- ADS -----------
 
User avatar
Blueontop
Rank 6
Rank 6
Posts: 421
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 8:01 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by Blueontop »

PRM1 wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:42 am Funny how W5 completely ignored the criminal past of the FO…

What was the nature of the criminal past?
---------- ADS -----------
 
genetic jack hammer
Rank 6
Rank 6
Posts: 498
Joined: Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:50 pm
Location: right here

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by genetic jack hammer »

Blueontop wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 1:07 pm
PRM1 wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:42 am Funny how W5 completely ignored the criminal past of the FO…

What was the nature of the criminal past?
\
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-r ... -bust.html

Sorry, unable to find the whole story. Looks like a lot of news releases have been removed.
---------- ADS -----------
 
User avatar
oldncold
Rank (9)
Rank (9)
Posts: 1015
Joined: Thu May 13, 2004 11:17 am
Location: south of 78N latitude , north of 30'latitude

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by oldncold »

Usa would send a seal team hunt down the narcos

canada sends a diplomat begs for access and hand the detained cookies .

If you are the dictator who would you fear

Also if canada govt had any balls it would have banned canadian tourists from the dominican and 1.5 billon economic benefit for
years until they got immediately released money talks bullshi.. walks trudeaus grasp on geo politics fits on a needlehead
---------- ADS -----------
 
alkaseltzer
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 311
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 6:16 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by alkaseltzer »

DanWEC wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 7:28 pm
hawker driver wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 7:13 pm Just watched the W5 story tonight and can tell you I will be avoiding Signature in YYZ until that ramp manager and the company answer some questions that W5 had.
Right? Blatantly sketchy. The charter customer was a fake company as well, and passengers were literally 50% convicted drug traffickers.
A lot of bad actors here. There are likely several more... but damn. Good work so far by W5.
So airport employees using airport vehicles loaded up the plane... I wonder how much money Julio Iglasias really makes from his airport? ;)
Tell CEO Eric Edmondson to release all the passport photocopies of every passenger on these flights and of the identity of Strudwick to the public, FBI and Interpol. He would have a copy on file.

Worse, he probably turned a blind eye to the revenue stream and source of income. He should be arrested.

Release all the wired transactions to the police to see. For the public to see.

A stripper knows if drugs are used at their strip club. Likewise, these pilots know the passengers and were more than just TikTok stars. Don't buy it for a second they were just "bus drivers". The FO, I'm sure, supports "women's rights" :lol:
---------- ADS -----------
 
braaap Braap
Rank 4
Rank 4
Posts: 218
Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2022 4:51 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by braaap Braap »

PRM1 wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:42 am Funny how W5 completely ignored the criminal past of the FO…
wtf is this comment. They probably ignored it because 1) He was found not guilty (but that case is such a mess) and 2) It had nothing to do with the story. How did you expect them to slide that in at any point?
---------- ADS -----------
 
braaap Braap
Rank 4
Rank 4
Posts: 218
Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2022 4:51 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by braaap Braap »

genetic jack hammer wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 6:01 pm
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-r ... -bust.html

Sorry, unable to find the whole story. Looks like a lot of news releases have been removed.
You can use archive.ph to gain access to the full story. Put the link into the dark blue box.
---------- ADS -----------
 
User avatar
Chaxterium
Rank 7
Rank 7
Posts: 645
Joined: Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:28 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by Chaxterium »

alkaseltzer wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 2:50 pm these pilots know the passengers and were more than just TikTok stars. Don't buy it for a second they were just "bus drivers".
I'm sorry but you think the crew knew who these passengers were? I've flown charter. The only thing I ever knew about my passengers was how many of them there were.

What makes you think the pilots gave a shit who these passengers were?
---------- ADS -----------
 
alkaseltzer
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 311
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 6:16 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by alkaseltzer »

Chaxterium wrote: Thu Dec 15, 2022 9:50 am
alkaseltzer wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 2:50 pm these pilots know the passengers and were more than just TikTok stars. Don't buy it for a second they were just "bus drivers".
I'm sorry but you think the crew knew who these passengers were? I've flown charter. The only thing I ever knew about my passengers was how many of them there were.

What makes you think the pilots gave a shit who these passengers were?
I’ve flown charter too.

You must work for a particularly niche outfit.
---------- ADS -----------
 
User avatar
Chaxterium
Rank 7
Rank 7
Posts: 645
Joined: Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:28 pm

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by Chaxterium »

alkaseltzer wrote: Thu Dec 15, 2022 10:39 am You must work for a particularly niche outfit.
No, not particularly.

I'm still curious why you think the crew would know, or even care to know, the background of the pax they were carrying.

When I was given notice of a trip I had three questions:

1. When?
2. Where?
3. How long?
---------- ADS -----------
 
PRM1
Rank 2
Rank 2
Posts: 90
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2016 6:38 am

Re: Pivot Air & the DR

Post by PRM1 »

:smt014
braaap Braap wrote: Thu Dec 15, 2022 12:00 am
PRM1 wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:42 am Funny how W5 completely ignored the criminal past of the FO…
wtf is this comment. They probably ignored it because 1) He was found not guilty (but that case is such a mess) and 2) It had nothing to do with the story. How did you expect them to slide that in at any point?
I guess legal fees aren’t a reason to smuggle drugs…. Or the family income stream drying up when your breadwinning brother gets thrown in prison for beating a woman while you stood there watching, doing nothing…

The FO is about the only person in The world I wouldn’t give the benefit of the doubt.
---------- ADS -----------
 
Post Reply

Return to “General Airline Industry Comments”