A former French Navy Rafale pilot who also trained with the US Navy, was an expert in CATOBAR carrier landings, and who controversially claimed that the Indian Air Force lost a Rafale jet during the India-Pakistan clash in May last year, has been placed under formal investigation in Paris over alleged intelligence activity benefiting China.
Pierre-Henri Chuet, who flew Super Étendard and Rafale M fighters from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, was formally placed under investigation after he was presented to an investigating magistrate last week, following his questioning by France’s domestic intelligence service, the DGSI.
The development was first reported on July 27 by Intelligence Online.
He is under investigation for four charges of espionage: disclosure of national defense secrets by a person entrusted with them, intelligence with a foreign power, collection of information relating to the fundamental interests of the nation, and delivery of information to a foreign power.
Chuet joins a long list of Western pilots who have been warned or investigated for training China’s PLA Air Force (PLAAF) aviators on tactics, procedures, and related skills. Training sometimes took place in China or in third countries.
Notably, former U.S. Air Force major Gerald Eddie Brown Jr., who also flew the F-35, was arrested in February this year in the US shortly after he returned from China. He was charged with providing and conspiring to provide unauthorized defense services to PLAAF pilots in 2023.
Similarly, Daniel Edmund Duggan, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot, was charged in a 2017 U.S. indictment with conspiracy for allegedly providing training to Chinese military pilots, including aircraft carrier takeoff/landing tactics, techniques, and procedures. In April, he lost his appeal to resist extradition to the US.
All these cases fit into a pattern in which PLAAF, which has very limited recent combat experience, seeks to close gaps in pilot training and aerial battle tactics by hiring former Western fighter pilots, mostly through intermediaries based in third countries, to obscure PLA links.
How Unauthorized China Trips Got Pierre-Henri Chuet in Trouble
Pierre-Henri Chuet, a dual French-Canadian citizen, is a former French Naval Air fighter pilot, trained as a 737 pilot for Air Canada, trained with the US Navy as an exchange officer, and became a noted author, international keynote speaker, and YouTuber after retiring from the French Navy.
Trained by the US Navy, he accumulated extensive experience in combat operations, aerial demonstrations aboard the Rafale Marine, and completed over 200 aircraft carrier landings.
Pierre-Henri spent eight years in a combat squadron before joining Air Canada as a commercial pilot.
His carrier aviation experience as a Rafale M fighter pilot was particularly valuable to China, which already has the world’s second-largest carrier fleet.
Beijing currently has three aircraft carriers, and its fourth, rumored to be nuclear-powered, is already under construction.
Pierre-Henri’s CATOBAR Experience
Notably, China’s newest carrier, Fujian, is configured for catapult-assisted takeoffs and arrested landings (CATOBAR).
Apart from China, only two other countries operate CATOBAR-configured carriers: the US and France.
Charles de Gaulle, the French Navy’s sole aircraft carrier, is nuclear-powered, displaces 42,500 tons, and uses two steam catapults. It has operated Rafale M fighters and E-2C Hawkeyes since it entered service in 2001 and remains fully active.
No other navy currently has an operational CATOBAR carrier.
This makes pilots with experience in takeoff/landings on CATOBAR-configured carriers highly valuable in China, which commissioned its first CATOBAR-configured carrier, Fujian, in November last year.
Pierre-Henri had nearly eight years of experience aboard Charles de Gaulle, which could have greatly helped China train its fighter pilots for the new Fujian carrier.
An arrested landing, commonly called a trap, is the process of slowing an aircraft as it approaches 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 at full power and shut down 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 facing a shortage of skilled naval aviators. A Chinese military magazine, Ordnance Industry Science Technology, reported in 2022 that the People’s Liberation Army Navy lacks sufficient qualified shipborne fighter-jet pilots.
Pierre-Henri reportedly traveled to China in September 2018 and August 2019 while still serving, without notifying his chain of command, as required by French military regulations.
Both trips were financed by a South African aviation company, already under the scanner for hiring Western fighter pilots to train Chinese pilots, Aerotime reported.
French investigative outlet Le Canard Enchaîné reported in April 2025 that the Paris prosecutor’s office had received a referral from the Ministry of the Armed Forces on February 19, 2025, concerning a former serviceman suspected of intelligence activity with a foreign power.
Last week, Pierre-Henri was formally placed under investigation.
Pierre-Henri’s Controversial Rafale Video
Post-retirement, Pierre-Henri became an author, corporate speaker, and prolific YouTuber, developing a large following.
However, some of his YouTube videos created huge controversy last year when he suggested that India lost a Rafale fighter jet during the clash with Pakistan in May 2025.
In the video titled “UN RAFALE INDIEN PERDU FACE AU PAKISTAN ? ANALYSE D’UN PILOTE DE CHASSE (ATE CHUET),” uploaded on 10 May 2025, he stated with high confidence that India lost at least one single-seat Rafale jet during the clash.
In his subsequent videos on the JF-17, J-10C, and PL-15 air-to-air missiles, he praised Chinese jets and missiles highly.
China Poking Western Fighter Pilots Via South Africa
According to reports, both of Pierre-Henri’s trips to China in 2018 and 2019 were arranged and financed by a South African aviation company.
South Africa, in fact, has emerged as a key link in many such cases.
A 2022 Sky News investigation identified the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) as a conduit for recruiting former British military aviators, prompting a UK Ministry of Defence threat alert.
Spanish newspaper ABC reported on July 25, 2026, that intelligence services have identified at least two former Spanish Air and Space Force pilots who are training Chinese military aviators, hired through South African intermediaries, including TFASA.
TFASA’s name also figured in the case of former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan. He has been accused of violating arms trafficking regulations by training Chinese fighter pilots in carrier-arrested landings at TFASA.
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.
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).
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.”
Pierre-Henri’s case is not an exception but fits in this pattern of China hiring Western fighter pilots, often with carrier landing experience, through agencies in third countries, such as South Africa, to train PLAAF fighter pilots.
It remains to be seen how Western countries will deal with this challenge.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, The Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
