T-2 Buckeye was exported to South Africa to help train Chinese carrier pilots

The U.S. warrant and 2017 indictment of a former U.S. Marine Corps Harrier pilot accused of helping China to train its military pilots have been unsealed by the District of Columbia court. According to information in the indictment of Daniel Duggan, the U.S. government had allowed a T-2 Buckeye trainer to be exported to South Africa due to false information given.

NJR ZA, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The North American T-2 was used extensively by the U.S. Navy to train pilots on landing and taking off from aircraft carriers.

U.S. prosecutors said that the T-2 was exported to a South Africa flight academy. Dugan is accused of providing training to Chinese pilots at the academy from 2010 to 2012. According to U.S. law, the government must issue a license or written authorization before exporting defense equipment or services. This policy has been to deny licenses for exports to China or Chinese nationals. The indictment states that Mr. Duggan and his co-conspirators did not seek a license to export defense services to China. The indictment added that the U.S. State Department had informed him by email in 2008 this was required to train members of a foreign air force.

It was also revealed that another former U.S. military pilot was involved in the scheme to help China train its naval aviators.

The jet is listed for sale previously on Aircraft.com and the South African registration is ZU-NVY. The current fate of ZU-NVY is not known. It was constructed on Jan. 1, 1967 as a T-2B and the certificate of airworthiness was issued on Oct. 11, 2006 as N36TB. It was taken off the FAA registration on May 9, 2011 when it was exported to South Africa.

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