Pivot Airlines pilots and flight crew jailed in the Dominican Republic eight months ago have returned to the United States. The crew was in Punta Cana on April 5, about to take off, when one of the crew members found a bag in the “avionics bay.” The RCMP (national police) and local police were notified and eventually found eight bags with drugs and arrested the flight crew.

Wrongfully arrested?

April 5 is undoubtedly a day that the Pivot Airlines crew will never forget, as much as they would like to. The crew was getting ready to return to Canada when a suspicious bag was found in the avionics bay, a compartment accessed from outside the Bombardier CRJ-100. The avionics bay is a compartment where wiring and computer equipment are located. After Dominican authorities searched the aircraft and the compartment, eight bags containing cocaine were found, totaling 210kg.

After the authorities’ search, the Pivot flight crew was arrested and thrown in jail, where they remained in cramped cells for nine days. According to the crew, they were threatened daily by other imprisoned drug traffickers who threatened the crew with violence if they did not transfer money. After nine days, the crew was freed on bail, but their passports were confiscated, and they were ordered to remain in the Dominican Republic.

Though the crew was freed, the airline says they had to live under armed guard most of the time because of death threats. Less than one month ago, on November 11, prosecutors for the Public Ministry announced that the case against the Canadians was being closed because not enough evidence was found to substantiate the accusation.

Back in Canada

The Pivot crew that was jailed eight months ago returned to Canada yesterday. Loved ones greeted the crew with hugs and tears at Toronto Pearson International Airport after flying home on WestJet. The trip to the Dominican Republic was supposed to last less than 24 hours but became a nightmare for five Pivot employees.

Flight attendant Alex Rozov said,

“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.”

B.K. Dubey, the employee that discovered the bag in the avionics bay, said,

“I’m back, I’m with my family. I’m really happy. I can’t express it.”

Dubey is a native of India and was granted Canadian citizenship remotely from the Dominican Republic so that he would receive better care and respect from the Dominican authorities.

The flight’s captain, Rob Di Venanzo, said,

“The last two months I really started to lose hope, though I knew we did the right thing. I really started to feel they had it out against us, maybe for what we discovered.”

Pivot’s CEO, Eric Edmonson, urged the Canadian government to investigate the Dominican Republic’s aviation, claiming that commercial aircraft are regularly used to smuggle drugs.