New Delhi: The Ambassador of France to New Delhi has denied that Pakistani pilots were trained to fly the Rafale aircraft for the Qatari Air Force.
This clarification comes after ainonline.com, an independent media firm which focusses on the aviation sector reported that “the first batch of pilots trained for Qatar in November 2017 were Pakistani exchange officers.” According to Jon Lake, the author of the piece, “Escadron de Chasse 04.030 was established at Mont-de-Marsan as the Qatar Rafale Squadron on Oct. 1, 2017.”
Referring to the ainonline.com story, Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler has said, “I can confirm that it is fake news.” French government sources have told NDTV that they have cross-checked details of this article.
Qatar took delivery of its first Rafale at Dassault’s Merignac facility on February 6, this year. In a press statement, Dassault had said Qatar had signed up for 24 Rafale fighters in May 2015. In December 2017, it ordered an additional 12 fighters. The deal for the first 24 fighters is valued at euro 6.3 billion.
