The former US Marine Corps pilot, Daniel Duggan, who was arrested two years ago for unlawfully training Chinese naval aviators in sophisticated aircraft-carrier landings, is finally scheduled to be extradited to the United States.
According to reports, Daniel Duggan, 56, who has been fighting his extradition from a high-security prison cell in Australia for two years, will be sent to the US in early 2025.
Daniel was arrested in October 2022 near his Orange, New South Wales house. Daniel has been accused of violating arms trafficking regulations by training Chinese fighter pilots in carrier-arrested landings at the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA).
An arrested landing, commonly called a trap, is the process of slowing down an aircraft as it arrives on an aircraft carrier. This is accomplished using a mechanical device known as arresting gear, consisting of steel wires stretched across the deck and connected to hydraulic cylinders below the deck.
The arrested landing occurs when an approaching plane makes contact with an aircraft carrier, and its tail hook catches on one of the four wires positioned across the deck.
The fighter jet can safely halt once the tail hook quickly slows it down by snagging one of the cables. It is necessary because the decks of aircraft carriers are too short for conventional landings.
Notably, arrested landing requires an extremely high level of competence and skill because the pilot has to come in on full power and shut his engines as soon as he hooks on. If the pilot fails to hook on, he is expected to keep flying away from the flight deck. Only highly qualified and experienced Navy fighter pilots can land on the aircraft carrier since a failed landing could prove fatal.
China has allegedly been dealing with a dearth of skilled naval aviators. A Chinese military magazine, Ordnance Industry Science Technology, reported in 2022 that the People’s Liberation Army Navy does not have enough qualified ship-borne fighter jet pilots.
The US and its allies have alleged that China has been recruiting its former fighter pilots to train its aviators, bolster its capability, and learn Western combat tactics to prepare for a potential conflict.
The ‘Five Eyes’ partners — the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand — jointly released a bulletin in June 2024, terming China’s recruitment operations as a “persistent” danger.
At the time, Michael Casey, the head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, a division of the US intelligence agency, said, “The PLA wants the skills and expertise of these individuals to make its military air operations more capable while gaining insight into Western air tactics, techniques, and procedures. The insight the PLA gains from Western military talent threatens the safety of the targeted recruits, their fellow service members, and U.S. and allied security.”
The bulletin claimed that the PLA has been using private companies in South Africa and China to hire former fighter pilots from Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and other Western nations to train cadet pilots in the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) and the PLA Navy (PLAN). Notably, Daniel Duggan has also been charged with training Chinese fighter pilots in South Africa between 2009 and 2012.
Following his arrest, the US filed the case for extradition under the terms of Australia’s extradition agreement with the US. If convicted in the United States, Duggan could face up to 60 years in prison, as per reports.
The Tale Of Daniel Training Chinese Naval Aviators
Daniel Duggan served with the US Marines for more than ten years, from 1989 to 2002, rising to the rank of Major. According to reports, Duggan piloted the AV-8B Harrier II “jump jet” while serving as a Marine Corps exchange pilot with the Spanish Navy.
Years after moving to Australia in 2005, Daniel started teaching at the Test Flying Academy of South Africa, or TFASA flight school in South Africa. This academy specializes in training pilots to test aircraft to their limits and assess their performance under pressure.
The flight school was established in 2003 especially to serve China’s rapidly expanding aviation industry, which required thousands of more pilots than the nation could train. TFASA even started a flying school in collaboration with AVIC, one of China’s largest defense firms.
US prosecutors allege that Daniel was involved in the unlawful training of Chinese military pilots in aircraft carrier landing and takeoff. According to the prosecutors, he was an American citizen while he taught at TFASA, which means he required permission from the US government before he could train any foreign military forces.
However, for the past two years, Daniel has fought against the extradition request and stressed that he is essentially a victim of the rising tensions between China and the United States. He maintains that while he trained Chinese students in sophisticated carrier operations, he was unaware they were linked to the Chinese military. “I took the word of TFASA that these pilots were Chinese test pilots, student Chinese test pilots. They weren’t military,” Daniel told ABC News.
Further, even though he acknowledges that the Chinese pilots were being taught a technique that was created for landing on aircraft carriers, he asserts that the method has other legitimate uses outside of the military environment and that actual carriers were not involved. “What is being taught is a technique to control an aircraft and slow flight and up and up and close to an aerodynamic stall,” he said.
“It’s approach and landing technique. And in the military, it was referred to as what they call field carrier landing practice,” he told ABC News. “It’s a flight technique developed for approach and landing to an aircraft carrier. That doesn’t mean that the pilots are being taught to land and take off from aircraft carriers,” he added.
Daniel Duggan’s family is now weighing their legal options, which include asking the government to provide particular justifications for its decision. His wife, Saffrine Duggan, said: “We feel abandoned by the Australian government and deeply disappointed that they have completely failed in their duty to protect an Australian family.”
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