16631: (Hermantin)-Miami-Herald-Airline scrubs Haiti flight, bounces $6,000 refund (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Sep. 04, 2003



Airline scrubs Haiti flight, bounces $6,000 refund

BY EVAN S. BENN
ebenn@herald.com

A fledgling airline whose motto is ''convenience, affordability and
dependability'' appeared to deliver just the opposite recently to a group of
South Florida do-gooders.

Officials with Fort Lauderdale-based Florida Air Express have made
themselves unavailable since bouncing a $6,000 refund check, said Dr. John
Fletemeyer, who helped organize a goodwill trip to Cap Haitien, Haiti.

Fletemeyer, vice president of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and
Eddy Remy, president of the Haitian American Business Council, planned an
Aug. 10 trip to Cap Haitien, Fort Lauderdale's sister city.

Along with 14 doctors and lifeguards, the men were going to set up free
swimming classes for local children, start a beach patrol along
drowning-prone water areas, and make improvements to the city's
emergency-medicine centers.

But they never made it to Haiti. Organizers said they got a call from a
Florida Air Express representative the night before their flight, saying
their plane wasn't ready. The next day, Aug. 10, a representative called
back, this time to tell the group that no pilot was available to fly to
Haiti from Fort Lauderdale, Fletemeyer said.

''They said to wait two more days,'' Fletemeyer said. ``But they had already
broken our plans to be there on the 10th. So we just wanted to get our money
back.''

Jean R. Achille, Florida Air's president and CEO, wrote the group a check
Aug. 11 for $6,000, the cost of the plane tickets. He told them to wait a
few days before cashing it, said Barry Shaw, another organizer who runs a
water-safety program based in Oakland Park.

The check bounced twice, including an attempt on Aug. 28, Shaw said.
Fletemeyer, Shaw and Remy said Achille has not returned about 30 messages
left at his office and on his cellphone.

Florida Air Express began operating out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood
International in February, airport spokesman Jim Reynolds said. It flew two
passenger flights a week from Fort Lauderdale to Cap Haitien, according to
documents given to airport officials.

It shares office space with Air Florida, whose representatives said the two
companies are entirely separate. A Federal Aviation Administration
spokeswoman said records show no trace of Florida Air Express, but noted
that the company may be registered under a different name.

Achille did not return telephone messages Wednesday.

When a Herald reporter contacted a Florida Air Express representative by
phone Wednesday, she asked to be interviewed in person at the company's Fort
Lauderdale office. When the reporter arrived, no one answered the locked
door. The representative returned a phone call and referred questions to the
company's lawyer -- but wouldn't provide a name or number.

The trip's organizers have contacted the Broward Sheriff's Office, they
said, and are in the process of giving investigators documentation about the
returned check.

They are planning to try again to make a four-day trip to Cap Haitien on
Sept. 21, with a different airline. But, they said, the damage is
irreversible. ''The problem is, the people of Cap Haitien feel let down, and
now they're doubting our organization,'' Remy said. 'It makes us look like
we can't keep our word. We promise to help, and the people just say, `Yeah,
right, we've heard that before.' ''

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