Modern Slavery in a Texas Flight School



How a sketchy aviation academy in Texas drove an immigrant flight student to suicide. Yan Yang was supposed to learn how to be an airline pilot. Instead, the 21 yo was bullied, made to mop floors and clean toilets.

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We're talking about an aviation school in Denton, Texas that is accused of driving a Chinese student to suicide in 2019. According to plaintiff accusations, this aviation school had Chinese students mopping floors, cleaning toilets, and holding the doors open for passers-by, rather than getting the flight training they had paid for when they came to the US to learn to be airline pilots. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all of our public episodes ad-free! 1, 2, 3

The school also let an airplane fly despite repeated engine failure events according to an NTSB Report about a crash that killed another Chinese student and the student's 25 year old American instructor. Predictably, at least one of the owners of this school lists a history of employment and contracts with companies like Halliburton, Texaco, etc. 4, 5


1. Marshall Reid. Chinese parents sue Denton County aviation academy over son's death archive copy. Denton Record-Chronicle. September 2020. (archive copy

2. Reddit: Chinese parents sue.... /r/denton subreddit. September 2020. 

3. Reddit: Denton aviation academy photos. /r/denton subreddit. October 2020. 

4. Megan Gray-Hatfield. ‘Our hearts are heavy’: Memorial set up to honor 2 killed in plane crash. Gainesville Daily Register. July 2019. 

5. NTSB. Aviation Accident Summary CEN19FA238. Accidents App. August 2019. 

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