Papua separatists claim to have shot dead a US pilot who transported Indonesian troops

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A Papua separatist group said Thursday it shot dead an American pilot who allegedly transported Indonesian troops into the restive province.

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

The plane was carrying one pilot and seven passengers, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. After the pilot reported that the aircraft had landed, communications with personnel at the airstrip were subsequently 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 has spiked in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed. The rebels have especially targeted foreign pilots.

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

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

Papua police said they were still working to verify the condition of the pilot and the seven passengers. Spokesperson Yusuf Sutejo said their efforts were complicated by the terrain. There is no road access and it can only be reached by air.

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

He alleged that civilian aircraft have been used to transport Indonesian military personnel and logistics into Papua’s remote interior. He said the American pilot was killed because the aircraft continued operating 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 the decades-long conflict in Papua, which separatists say has resulted in civilian deaths and mass displacement.

“The shooting of the American pilot is the result of the failure of the Indonesian, U.S. and Dutch governments, as well as the United Nations, to address the root causes of the conflict in Papua, which has persisted for 64 years,” he said in a statement.

He also urged the United Nations to facilitate talks involving the Indonesian government, the TPNPB and Papuan representatives, and warned that the group would target other civilian aircraft it believes are assisting military operations in the region.

In February 2023, Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, abducted Philip Mark Mehrtens, a pilot from Christchurch, New Zealand, who was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air. He was freed in September 2024.

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

Papua, a former Dutch colony, was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, under a United Nations-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham, triggering the protracted conflict.