Yesterday, Tuesday 25 February, France’s main pilots’ union, SNPL France Alpa called for French commercial airline pilots to boycott the Dominican Republic in protest at the 11-month detention of two colleagues in jail on drug smuggling charges.
The union’s president, Yves Deshayes, said that on Tuesday two Air France pilots said they would not fly to Santo Domingo, and had to be replaced.
The union launched the action in support of two pilots, Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos, who were arrested on 20 March 2013 when Dominican anti-narcotics officials discovered 700 kilos of cocaine in their plane.
The aircraft, a Falcon 50 private jet owned by a French millionaire owner of a chain of opticians, Alain Afflelou, was under charter at the time to a company based in southeast France.
The two pilots have been kept in detention since, pending trial. The union says a court hearing to begin proceedings against them and nearly 40 other drug trafficking suspects has been delayed six times.
www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140225/union-urges-french-pilots-boycott-dominican-republic