Pivot Airlines said in a statement Friday that it is “extremely worried” about the safety of its employees and that the federal government must do more to ensure their safe return. The five Pivot crew members and six passengers were freed from jail earlier this month on a $23,000 bond with the condition that they remain in the country until the narcotics probe was concluded. The airline has complained about the requirement that prevents the Canadians from leaving the Dominican Republic, pointing out that it was staff members who discovered the contraband hidden in the plane’s “aviation bay” and subsequently reported it to authorities.
The judge who allowed their freedom stated that prosecutors had not produced any evidence linking the crew or passengers to the cocaine. They had already spent many days in jail before they were granted bail, some of them in shared cells with suspected drug dealers. According to the airline, they were subjected to serious death threats even after they were freed.
“In a stunning move, the prosecutor just filed an appeal of the court’s decision to allow our team bail, despite the fact that there is no evidence linking them to a crime,” Pivot said in a statement
According to the corporation, it is now widely known in the Dominican Republic that the crew thwarted an attempted shipment of cocaine worth up to $25 million on the street in Canada. If they are sent to jail with drug traffickers, they will be at grave risk since they will no longer have the protection of the private security they had on the outside, according to Pivot. “It is completely unacceptable that Canadian individuals can be unjustly arrested for faithfully reporting illegal conduct,” the statement read. “Together with foreign crew unions, we are warning Canadians and more than 70,000 airline employees to seriously consider the hazards of traveling to the Dominican Republic.”
“If reporting a crime in the Dominican Republic might lead to arbitrary incarceration, the government should seriously consider issuing a similar travel warning.” Pivot expressed gratitude to the federal government for its assistance thus far. It is providing consular assistance, and according to Joly’s press secretary, Maninder Sidhu, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, raised the issue during a pre-planned visit to the country last week.
But “the simple fact is” that Ottawa has not done enough to get the Canadians back safely, said the statement.
