MRU’s Aviation Program Goes Ahead with a Planned Career Expo
Posted Mar 11, 2017 3:15 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An Aviation Career Expo is still running, even though the staff and students participating continue to grieve.
On Saturday afternoon, Mount Royal University hosted the event that had pilots meeting with charter and commercial airlines, and testing their skills on a simulator.
Staff with the Program say going ahead with the career expo is part of returning to normal operations following the loss of two of its instructors, Jeffrey Bird and Reyn Johnson.
The two died on February 13th, when the training aircraft they were in went down near Cochrane.
Program Chair Leon Cygman says its been a slow recovery.
“Its nice to be gearing up again and returning back to our operations. It’s helping us and our students and our community, return back to, you know, as I called it, the new normal. And we’ll be better for this.”
Cygman says the expo is an important step forward for students.
“It hits home when it’s in your own backyard and you know the people who are involved. I think what this event has done for us is helped us heal. To show our students and the community that the aviation community is behind us in spite of what happened. They certainly understand it.”
Cygman says there’s a big demand for pilots because of new routes and a high number of pilots who are expected to retire in the next few years.
