Posted on Wed, Feb. 18, 2009
Horry County takes over Conway airport
Failed flight school files for bankruptcy
By Mike Cherney
[email protected]

Horry County government has temporarily moved in to operate the Conway-Horry County Airport after the North American Institute of Aviation, which had a lease with the county to run the airport and provided classes there, filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

The airport will remain open for traffic, but maintenance services and jet fuel that was provided by the aviation institute will no longer be available, said Walt Whittier, the county's general aviation director. The county had been providing fuel for piston aircraft at the airport and will continue to do so.

"The impact on the flying public is: I don't know at this point," Whittier said Tuesday. "The owner just filed the bankruptcy papers last night, and I don't imagine the lawyers had much time to review them. I don't know what it means from my perspective."

The institute, which had operated in Conway since the late 1970s, suspended its classes in September.

The county evicted the institute from airport property last week after it failed to pay rent since November. The county filed suit in local court to recover the unpaid rent, but a hearing scheduled for Tuesday was canceled because the institute's assets are now protected under federal bankruptcy law.

Benjamin Creel, the owner of the institute since 2000, said he tried to negotiate an agreement with the county in good faith. He said he filed for federal bankruptcy protection because he was concerned the county would seize the institute's assets in local courts.

"We basically got our stuff out of there on Tuesday, and then the county, true to their word, in a heavy-handed fashion in my opinion, showed up on Wednesday with the county police and evacuated my staff from the building," said Creel, who also owns Creel Oil & Gas Co. in Conway.

Creel said he believed he owed the county about $24,000 in rent. Arrigo Carotti, a deputy county attorney, said the county figured the institute owed nearly $35,000 in rent, plus some other expenses.

Carotti said the county would file a claim with the bankruptcy court. According to the Chapter 7 bankruptcy papers filed in Columbia, the institute owed between $500,000 and $1 million to between 100 and 199 creditors and had between $100,000 and $500,000 worth of assets.

Whittier said a county employee will be at the airport to guide visitors through the facility. Since last week, a police officer has also been stationed there, he said.

Whittier said 17 private planes are permanently stored at the facility and about half a dozen planes fly every week into the airport off U.S. 378 west of Conway. Carotti said the bankruptcy court will likely determine what happens to the institute's property, which includes furniture, tools, parts and test engines.

About 50 students were enrolled at the institute, Creel said, and about 75 percent of them were foreign.

Creel said a bond taken out by the school will repay or has repaid the domestic students, but how the foreign students will get their money back remains to be seen.

A decline in enrollment following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a fire at the school's training center in 2002 and the recent economic downturn contributed to the class suspensions.

"I would like to thank my former staff for their loyal service," Creel said, "and thank our former customers and graduates for their patronage over the years."