A former US fighter pilot being held under a veil of secrecy in Australia will face court on Friday, with an ex-marine colleague telling AFP the retired instructor trained a flight crew in China before his arrest.
Daniel Edmund Duggan was arrested in rural New South Wales on October 21, Australia’s Attorney General confirmed, the same week British intelligence officials issued a rare warning about China’s recruitment of retired military pilots.
The Attorney General’s Department said Duggan, 54, was arrested at Washington’s request – although both US and Australian authorities have declined to comment further and details of the charges have been sealed.
Duggan is now facing extradition to the United States and is due to appear in Sydney Magistrates’ Court on Friday, according to court lists.
An ex-Navy pilot who has known Duggan for almost 20 years told AFP Chinese companies are known to recruit military aviators – and he struggled to understand why Duggan should now be the target of the arrest.
“I can’t imagine what secrets he would have that he would share, that would have caused him so much trouble,” said the ex-Marine, who requested anonymity because he still worked for a commercial airline.
“I think working in China was pretty familiar to most ex-military pilots. I would have first heard about it well over 10 years ago…it’s just that it’s been in the news recently.”
– ‘Estimated’ –
Duggan flew in the US Marine Corps for over a decade, reaching the rank of major and working as a military tactical flight instructor, according to his company website.
After leaving the Marines, he moved to Australia, where he is listed as a director at an “adventure flight” company called Top Gun Tasmania between 2005 and 2014.
The company operated “a Chinese air force’s first military training aircraft,” known as the Nanchang fighter jet, according to its website.
“Our Nanchang aircraft are maintained to the same high standard using the Chinese Air Force’s maintenance systems,” the website said.
Australian company records show that he moved to Beijing around 2014, giving his address at an apartment in Beijing’s upscale Chaoyang district.
The ex-Navy pilot told AFP Duggan “worked for a company in China that does CRM training” – referring to cockpit resource management, a set of procedures to improve flight safety.
He added that Duggan was an experienced pilot who had flown the notoriously difficult Harrier jump jet in exchanges with the Spanish Navy.
“Dan was well respected. It’s a very coveted job.”
A restaurant review in Beijing in 2017 mentioned that an American pilot named Dan Duggan had run an aviation-themed dive bar called “Flying Kangaroo” in Chaoyang.
– ‘Take decisive steps’ –
Last week, both the British and Australian governments revealed fears Beijing would poach retired pilots to train China’s air force in Western military techniques.
“We are taking decisive steps to stop Chinese recruitment programs attempting to poach serving and ex-British Forces pilots to train People’s Liberation Army personnel,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
British media reported that more than 30 pilots have accepted lucrative training offers from China’s military.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin denied any knowledge of such employment of British pilots, telling a regular news conference: “I am not aware of the circumstances you mentioned.”
Australian Defense Secretary Richard Marles launched a separate inquiry and said he would be “concerned” if Australian army pilots were “lured” to China.
China’s military has undergone a period of rapid modernization under President Xi Jingping, building the world’s largest navy and transforming the world’s largest standing army.
