Ex-Marine Pilot Faces Extradition To The U.S. For Training Chinese Pilots

According to a foreign media report on October 26th, an ex-Marine Corps pilot was arrested on October 21st in Australia and faces extradition to the U.S. in the near future for further investigation, part of an apparent internationally-allied crackdown on Communist China’s poaching of Western military expertise.

Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, worked in the U.S. military for more than a decade and formed a company called “Top Gun Australia,” which offered tours in former military aircraft converted to civilian use after moving to Australia, according to the company’s website.

Duggan moved to Beijing in 2014 after selling Top Gun Tasmania. He was also listed on LinkedIn as a managing director of an aviation consultancy based in Qingdao, China, which was founded in 2017 and dissolved in 2020.

A source said the FBI had sought his arrest after western countries warned that Beijing was poaching retired pilots with military expertise by promising annual salaries of up to $270,000. Dozens of former British military pilots had been thought to train the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army and to provide information to military officials on how to operate in combat. Duggan’s arrest came the same week the British government warned 30 ex-RAF pilots to stop working with the CCP’s military or face prosecution for violating national security laws.