$36 million suit alleges unmet promises, discrimination at American Airlines academy in San Diego

By the time Triston Sanderson was 25 years old he was a U.S. Army veteran, a graduate of the University of Mississippi and working as an accountant in Dallas. But growing up, Sanderson dreamed of piloting planes, not crunching numbers, so he jumped at an opportunity to take part in an American Airlines program that promised expedited flight training and the high likelihood of an airline job.

But after moving in 2022 to join the American Airlines Cadet Academy at San Diego’s Coast Flight Training, Sanderson alleges that he was subjected to racial discrimination in a program that failed to deliver on its lofty promises and left him deep in debt without the licensing and certifications that were advertised.

On Tuesday, Sanderson and 17 other student pilots filed a lawsuit in San Diego federal court, accusing American Airlines and Coast Flight Training of fraudulently deceiving students of color into joining a “substandard” cadet program that left them financially devastated. The suit, which seeks at least $36 million in damages, alleged that the American Airlines Cadet Academy took significantly longer than advertised to complete, did not provide the resources, facilities and staff that were advertised, did not provide one-on-one mentoring with commercial pilots as promised and was racially biased against Black students and others of color.

“The genesis of this program was a very laudable goal of diversifying the pilot profession, and we support that goal...