Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that no students are living at the U.S. 29 South dorms.

Falcon Aviation Academy’s location at the Newnan-Coweta County Airport shut down most of its operations suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, according to documents provided by former employees and students of the flight school.

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The flight school, which also has locations at Peachtree City’s Falcon Field and the Athens-Ben Epps Airport, primarily trains Chinese aviation students, and the program suspension appears to be connected to the outbreak of coronavirus in China.

The Peachtree City and Athens programs also ceased operations, according to staff at both airports.

In a message to Chinese students, academy representatives state that “due to external factors beyond our control that have impacted the Chinese training operation and enforcement, Falcon Aviation Academy will be suspending your training from 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26."

The message states that Falcon is “working with your airline to determine next steps for you.”

Chinese students were directed in the message to remain at their apartments and await further communications. The message ends with Falcon and its team apologizing for “the interruption to your training and for any inconvenience caused."

Most of the students live in apartments along Bullsboro Drive. The company has renovated a motel on U.S. 29 to use as student dorms, but no one is currently living there, according to multiple sources.

Some employees were terminated Wednesday, while others will remain with the company, according to the documents provided to The Newnan Times-Herald.

An email to staff from Falcon Human Resources Manager Jennifer Reid says the company has been forced to reduce staffing because of the suspension of the Chinese program.

In the email, employees are instructed to gather their personal belongings and collect envelopes with their names on them in order to find out their next steps. Some employees who have equipment and tools were directed to make arrangements to get their items at a future date.

Jessica Bailey said she was a shuttle driver for the Chinese program for seven months. When she got to work Wednesday, she said, police were telling everyone to get their things and go home.

“Students are still here and don’t know what to do. Many are on the verge of graduating,” she said. “We just want answers.”

There were numerous vehicles in the parking lot at Falcon on Thursday afternoon, but the doors to the building were locked.

When contacted two weeks ago about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak could have on the Chinese training program, Reid said it was too early to provide a fair assessment.

“Many of our contacts have just returned to work this past Monday,” Reid said on Feb. 14. “Our most recent class arrived in early December, almost a month before news of this new virus was reported, and none of the students exhibited sickness."

Reid said on Feb. 14 the company was continuing to monitor news reports and checking in with official government agencies “in anticipation of the virus diminishing and commerce with China returning to normal."

Officials at Falcon could not be reached for comment on Thursday. Calls are answered by an automated system that gives no indication of problems, and there was no notice on either the company’s website or Facebook page of the program shutdown.

Facebook posts from Feb. 19-21 seem to indicate business as usual. A Feb. 20 post shows an airplane wing in the clouds and states “If your dreams look like this, they look a lot like ours and WE WANT TO TALK TO You! Let Falcon Aviation Academy help you reach your goals through our Airline Professional Pilot Program” followed by several hashtags, including #cantstop and #wontstop.