{"id":234934,"date":"2026-04-16T23:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/234934\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T23:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:40:09","slug":"fort-pierce-flight-school-closes-following-lawsuit-causing-mass-layoffs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/234934\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Pierce flight school closes following lawsuit, causing mass layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Fort Pierce flight school is shutting down and laying off dozens of workers, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/agencies\/eta\/layoffs\/warn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification<\/a> (WARN) notice.<\/p>\n<p>Ari Ben Aviator Inc., which operates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aviator.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aviator College of Aeronautical Science &amp; Technology<\/a>, told employees the Fort Pierce campus would close permanently, with mass layoffs beginning April 15, 2026, according to the notice. The filing lists the school\u2019s physical address as 4220 Aviator Way in Fort Pierce and says the closure affects roughly 40 to 50 employees.<\/p>\n<p>The layoffs span a wide range of positions, including administration, human resources, career services, academic affairs, adjunct and ground instructors, librarians, mechanics and pilots, according to the notice. The filing also says there are no union affiliations and no known bumping rights.<\/p>\n<p>According to the notice, employees were told on April 9 that the campus would close. The filing says a recent lawsuit brought by the family of a former student left the company unable to complete a sale to new buyers. It also references allegations of bankruptcy.<\/p>\n<p>The closure follows earlier concerns about the school\u2019s operations. In late 2024, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accsc.org\/actions-and-announcements\/withdrawal-denial-actions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges<\/a> issued a warning to Aviator College citing concerns that included the school\u2019s fiscal condition and budget, student services, administrative support, faculty documentation and retention of educational staff.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/International%20Airport\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Treasure Coast International Airport<\/a>, where Aviator College operated, is a major general aviation hub in St. Lucie County and hosts aviation-related tenants, including flight training operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Fort Pierce flight school is shutting down and laying off dozens of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-234934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}