WPL, In the News
Flight School Sues Jet Center Owner
By Pat Moore Palm Beach Post Staff Writier
Jul 17, 2002, 11:33am

STUART -- The Tunisian-born owner of a former Martin County flight school filed suit Tuesday accusing Stuart Jet Center's owner of discriminating against him to the point that his company was forced to leave the airport.

Samir Maktouf, 44, who practices the Muslim religion, accused Jerry Black, owner of a fixed-based operation at Witham Field, of destroying the school's business by refusing to provide him services in violation of the company's lease with Martin County and by discriminating against him and many of the school's students.

"Our belief is that as a result of Mr. Maktouf's national origin, he was pushed out of there," said attorney Lou Lozeau, who filed the suit in Martin Circuit Court.

Stuart Jet Center refused to allow the pilot school's students who "looked like they were from the Middle East" to use the weather office and television room, while students who did not look like they were from the Middle East were not harassed, the suit states.

Lozeau said Black made racial epithets toward his client before Sept. 11, but the harassment intensified after the World Trade Center attacks.

Black did not return a phone call Tuesday.

Maktouf, who became a U.S. citizen in 1996, began the Florida Pilot School in 1990 and opened an additional school at Witham Field in 1997, the suit states.

Black bought Stuart Jet Center in January 2001 and began exerting influence on airport manager Michael Moon to put pressure on officials at Galaxy Aviation officials and Vought Aircraft Industries not to provide space for the school's planes, the suit states.

Moon denied he pressured anyone at Galaxy Aviation to stop providing tie-down space, and Vought spokeswoman Lynn Warme said company officials believe the lawsuit is incorrect because Vought doesn't lease space to anyone at the airport.

The suit accuses Stuart Jet Center of moving Maktouf's school to an older building and eventually refusing to lease tie-down spaces for his planes. He was forced to fly planes back and forth from the Fort Pierce airport to teach students, Lozeau said.

Maktouf's suit also accused Black of ordering two fuel trucks to block his school's access to the runway at Witham Field and falsely telling people at the airport Maktouf was wanted by the FBI.

Maktouf, who is working for another flight training school near Daytona Beach, is seeking damages suffered as a result of losing his business, Lozeau said.

© Copyright 2002 WPL Trial Attorneys L.L.P.