Separatist group from Papua, Indonesia claims to have killed American pilot

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A separatist group in Papua said Thursday it had shot down a U.S. pilot who was believed to be transporting Indonesian troops to the restive province.

A spokesman for the West Papua Liberation Army, or TPNPB, said its fighters shot down Nicholas F. Goselin and set fire to a plane operated by PT AMA, an Indonesian airline, in the village of Balinggama.

The plane was carrying a pilot and seven passengers, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. After the pilot reported that the plane had landed, communications with personnel on the landing strip were then lost, the ministry said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy.

A decades-old insurgency in impoverished Papua between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces escalated last year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed. The rebels particularly targeted foreign pilots.

The Indonesian military denied the plane was used to transport troops. Those on board were seven indigenous Papuan civilians, including three women. They were unharmed, according to the army.

An evacuation team tried to reach the site on Thursday but turned back due to bad weather, military spokesman Lt. Col. Wirya Artadiguna said. Authorities plan to try again Friday morning, he said.

Papua Police said they were still working to check the condition of the pilot and seven passengers. Spokesman Yusuf Sutejo said their efforts were complicated by the terrain. There is no road access and can only be accessed by air.

Rebel spokesman Sebby Sambom said the plane violated a ban on civilian flights in areas the separatist group considers its operational zones.

He alleged that civilian aircraft had been used to transport Indonesian military personnel and logistics assets to Papua’s remote interior. He said the American pilot was killed because the plane continued to operate despite the group’s warning. The claims could not be independently verified.

Sambom called on Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to open international negotiations aimed at resolving Papua’s decades-long conflict, which separatists say has led to civilian deaths and mass displacement.

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“The shooting of the American pilot is the result of the failure of the Indonesian, American and Dutch governments, as well as the United Nations, to address the root causes of the 64-year-old conflict in Papua,” he said in a statement.

He also urged the United Nations to facilitate negotiations between the Indonesian government, the TPNPB and Papuan representatives, and warned that the group would target other civilian aircraft that it said were taking part in military operations in the region.

In February 2023, Egianus Kogoya, regional commander of the Free Papua Movement, kidnapped Philip Mark Mehrtens, a pilot from Christchurch, New Zealand, who worked for the Indonesian airline Susi Air. He was released in September 2024.

In August 2024, TPNPB gunmen stormed a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, who worked for Indonesian airline PT Intan Angkasa Air Service. He was shot down shortly after landing in a remote village in Mimika district, carrying several freed indigenous Papuans.

Papua, a former Dutch colony, was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, following a United Nations-sponsored vote that was widely seen as a sham, sparking a protracted conflict.

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