Robert Obadia is the former owner of Nationair Canada and its parent company Nolisair. Obadia was charged with fraud after the bankruptcy of Nationair in 1993. Nationair was responsible in 1991 for the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Canadian-registered aircraft and the 15th-worst aviation disaster in history. Obadia was born in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

in 1942 and graduated with a degree in electronics engineering from

University of Grenoble The (, ''Grenoble Alps University'', abbr. UGA) is a Grands établissements, ''grand établissement'' in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 researchers. Es ...

in 1965. He immigrated to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

in 1967 after working for

Royal Air Maroc Royal Air Maroc (RAM, ; ; ) is the Morocco, Moroccan national carrier, as well as the country largest airline, ranking among the largest in Africa. RAM is wholly owned by the Cabinet of Morocco, Moroccan Government, and has its headquarters o ...

and

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

. After arriving in Canada, he joined

Quebecair Quebecair was a Canadian airline that operated from 1947 until 1986. Quebecair was headquartered in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, now a part of Montreal. History Early years Quebecair began as Rimouski Airlines in 1947 and flew under that name un ...

, where he eventually became vice-president of charters before leaving in 1980 to start Nationair.

Fraud and controversy

Obadia's company Nationair was declared bankrupt in May 1993. Controversy surrounded the fact that at the time of bankruptcy the company owed CDN$75,000,000 to the Canadian government, hundreds of creditors and employees due back wages. The controversy was further exacerbated by reports that Obadia had paid himself lavish dividends and salary, and taken low interest loans from the company. After Nationair's bankruptcy, Obadia was indicted and pleaded guilty to eight counts of

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

in relation to the company's activities. Obadia was ordered by a Quebec court in 1993 to repay investors and creditors $234,000. Obadia never served any time in prison despite pleading to 8 counts of

. Controversy also surrounded Nationair with reports and allegations of sub-standard safety practices. Media reports revealed that the carrier regularly flew aircraft that were not airworthy. This controversy was further exacerbated by media reports that

Transport Canada Transport Canada () is the Ministry (government department), department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, Policy, policies and Public services, services of road, rail, marine and air Transport in Canada, tra ...

was aware of these practices but did nothing about it. The Canadian federal government declared after an investigation, in 1998, that there were deficiencies in a number of operational and management areas at Nationair, especially in maintenance work. Twenty years after the Nationair aviation disaster, further reports of sub-standard aircraft maintenance emerged with Lina Colacci (whose 23-year-old sister Dolores Colacci, a flight attendant, died in the disaster) stating in a

CTV News CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the nationa ...

interview in July 2011 that her sister "had kept a journal, and she had written how she was scared that the safety of Nationair was lacking." In the same 2011

interview Lina Colacci recounted her deceased sister's journal entries that described Nationair's "staff implementing makeshift repairs, such as plugging up holes in the bathroom with rags". Some of the surviving family members launched a

wrongful death Wrongful death is a type of legal claim or cause of action against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as authorized by statute. In wrongful death cases, survivors are ...

class-action lawsuit against Obadia's Nationair. But their efforts were fruitless in recouping any damages as Obadia declared his company bankrupt in 1993, leaving the surviving families with no legal recourse. As of 2011, Obadia's whereabouts are unknown.

References

External links

* http://www.nationair-canada.com - Website documenting some of the history of Nationair - including the 1991 Crash in Jeddah, the Flight Attendant Lockout and the eventual bankruptcy of Nationair {{DEFAULTSORT:Obadia, Robert 1942 births Living people Canadian male criminals Canadian fraudsters Businesspeople from Casablanca 20th-century Canadian businesspeople 20th-century Canadian criminals