American pilot shot dead by West Papua Liberation Army fighters, plane torched
Niniek Karmini
Updated ,first published
Jakarta: A separatist group in Papua said Thursday it had shot and killed an American pilot who was allegedly ferrying Indonesian troops to the restive province.
A spokesman for the West Papua Liberation Army (TPNPB) said its fighters fatally shot Nicholas F. Goselin and set fire to a plane operated by Indonesian airline PT AMA in the village of Balinggama.
Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the plane was carrying a pilot and seven passengers. In its statement, the Ministry said that communication with the personnel on the runway was lost after the pilot reported that the plane had landed. There has been no comment yet from the US Embassy.
A decades-long insurgency in impoverished Papua between Indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces culminated last year when dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians were killed. The rebels specifically targeted foreign pilots.
The Indonesian military denied the claim that the plane was used to transport soldiers. There were seven Papuan indigenous civilians on board, including three women. The military said they were unharmed.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Wirya Artadiguna said the evacuation team tried to reach the area on Thursday but turned back due to bad weather conditions. Officials said they plan to try again Friday morning.
Papuan police said they were still working to confirm the condition of the pilot and seven passengers. Spokesman Yusuf Sutejo said their efforts were complicated by terrain. There is no road access and it can only be reached by air.
Rebel spokesman Sebby Sambom said the plane violated a ban on civilian flights in areas the separatist group considers its operational areas.
He claimed that civilian aircraft were used to transport Indonesian military personnel and logistics to the remote interior of Papua. He said that the American pilot was killed because the plane continued to operate despite the group’s warning. The allegations could not be independently verified.
Sambom called on Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to launch international talks aimed at resolving the decades-old conflict in Papua, which separatists say has resulted in civilian deaths and mass displacement.
“The shooting down of the American pilot is the result of the failure of the Indonesian, US and Dutch governments, as well as the United Nations, to address the root causes of the 64-year conflict in Papua,” the group’s spokesman said in a statement. he said.
He also called on the United Nations to facilitate talks involving representatives of the Indonesian government, TPNPB and Papua, and warned that the group would target other civilian aircraft it believed were assisting military operations in the region.
In February 2023, the Free Papua Movement’s regional commander, Egianus Kogoya, kidnapped pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens from Christchurch, New Zealand, who was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air. He was released in September 2024.
In August 2024, TPNPB gunmen raided a helicopter and killed New Zealand pilot Glen Malcolm Conning, who was working for Indonesian aviation company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service. He was shot shortly after landing in a remote village in the Mimika region, carrying several freed Indigenous Papuans.
Papua, a former Dutch colony, was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 in a United Nations-sponsored vote widely seen as a fraud that triggered the long conflict.
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