Vacation in Dominican Republic? No Thanks!

The Pivot Airlines plane sits at the Dominican Republic airport after 210 kilograms of cocaine were found stashed on board. Photo by Dirección Nacional de Control de Drogas/Twitter

"It's hard to believe that we're actually back home."

"The way everything was unfolding, we just started losing all hope. It was an absolute circus."

"It doesn't make any sense the way they were trying to prosecute us."

Pivot Airlines Flight Attendant Alex Rozov

 

"The last two months I really started to lose hope though I knew we did the right thing."

"We've been threatened with death by narco criminals, extorted by inmates, and have lived in inhumane and humiliating conditions,"

"In prison, a dead body was placed outside our cell and we were told we would be next. We are living a nightmare."

"I really started to feel they had it out against us maybe for what we discovered."

Ron DiVenanzo, Pivot Flight CRJ-100 jet Captain

"Narco-trafficking is directly tied to tourism. The airplanes that fly the tourists in [to Dominican Republic] are flying narcotics out."

"I hope that the Dominican Republic takes what we bring to light seriously and more so that Transport Canada takes is very seriously."

Pivot CEO Eric Edmondson

The crew of Pivot Airlines was detained in the Dominican Republic in April after millions of dollars worth of cocaine were found aboard. All five arrived back in Toronto Thursday evening. (Unifor/YouTube)

 

In the Dominican Republic police are known to have accused airport workers of aiding drug-running. Last December there was an attempt to smuggle 47 kilograms of cocaine on a flight to Toronto. In a plane landing in Philadelphia from Santo Domingo, D.R. in August, U.S. customs officers discovered cocaine hidden in the avionics bay of the plane.

A million Canadian vacationers travelled to the country every year before the onset of the global pandemic. On April 4th, a Pivot flight chartered by an Alberta company said to be entertaining potential investors and their guests was just about to take off with its passengers that a different crew had earlier flown to the Dominican Republic days earlier, when Mechanic B.K. Dubey discovered the presence of an unauthorized bag inside the 'avionics bay'.

The avionics bay of the plane was a compartment accessed from the outside of the plane. The discovery of the sport bag led the airline to notify the RCMP along with local police. Another eight bags were found by Dominican authorities inside the area reserved for wiring and computer equipment. All told the luggage contained 210 kilograms of cocaine. 

An airport security video showed an individual unrelated to the plane's crew placing bags in the plane's avionics bay in the middle of the night when the crew were asleep in their hotel rooms. That video was in the possession of Dominican authorities to view the footage, since April. Pivot airline was able to obtain a copy of the video in August.

The significance of that is the fact that when the airline alerted the local police, the Canadian crew of the jet and their seven passengers were taken into police custody. The crew was incarcerated in a jail for nine days where they were harassed and threatened by accused drug traffickers demanding the foreigners transfer money to them to prevent violent retribution.

Eventually the crew was freed on bail even while prosecutors insisted they be kept in prison for the 12 months they felt the case required for investigation; going so far as to appeal the decision releasing them. At no time did Dominican police interrogate any of the Canadians. Their passports had been confiscated and orders were that they must remain in the Dominican Republic to await the outcome of the investigation.

While in the country, hoping to be released and to be flown back to Canada, they faced death threats outside prison finding themselves requiring armed guards to live in safety for the time they were forced to remain in the coutrry. In the eight month period that they awaited the results of the investigation, government-to-government diplomacy accomplished nothing, Pivot airline hired a private security firm to investigate the presence of the contraband for which no charges were ever laid.

 

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 on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

 

 

The Airline Pilots Association along with unions representing Pivot employees issued advisories warning airline crews flying into the Dominican Republic to be aware of perils such as these employees found themselves in. Finally, after all those agonizing months of hope and delay, prosecutors with the Public Ministry announced on November 11 that they were preparing to end the case: "acting responsibly, since the investigations had not obtained sufficient evidence to substantiate the accusation".

Without any evidence, the prosecutors had accused the flight crew at the bail hearing of being involved in an elaborate front for drug trafficking. Pivot's CEO Eric Edmondson on Thursday urged the Canadian government to launch an investigation of aviation in the Dominican Republic, with the statement that commercial airliners are being used routinely to smuggle drugs out of the island.

 

A Dominican judge ordered the Pivot airline's jet released. It is expected to be returned to Canada imminently. The plane previously flew Air Canada Express flights under contract, the main source of its revenue. While it was stuck in the Caribbean for those months, the airline's loss had "more than a major impact".

Thursday was a day of great celebration for the airline and its crew. They arrived back in Canada, able at last to leave the Caribbean Island that had kept them captive for eight long months. They arrived on an Air Canada Rouge flight from Punta Cana at Pearson International airport in Toronto where they were greeted by family members. A flight that was to have been no more than 24 hours in duration ended up being eight months in agony.

Pivot Airlines crew members (left to right) Alex Rozov, B.K. Dubey, Rob Di Venanzo and Aatif Safdar celebrate their return to Canada at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ont., Dec. 1, 2022, after being trapped in the Dominican Republic for nearly eight months. (Eric Szeto/CTV W5)