Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region have shot and killed a US pilot and set his plane on fire. The separatist group ‘West Papua National Liberation Army’ stated that they killed the pilot, Nicholas F. Gosling, after the aircraft landed in the Highland Papua province on Thursday. The BBC reported this news online.
The separatists claim that civilian pilots were transporting Indonesian troops in the region and that Gosling’s death served as a specific message against this activity. While Indonesian officials confirmed the burning of Gosling’s plane, they stated that the exact fate of the pilot and the seven passengers on board remains unclear. A decades-long conflict has persisted between the Indonesian government and the indigenous people of West Papua over the independence of this resource-rich region.
Indonesia’s civil aviation authority reported that the aircraft, carrying the US pilot and seven passengers, was found burnt out at an airport in the Yahukimo region. Based on a preliminary report from the director of the airport where the flight originated, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation stated that the pilot had died. However, authorities are awaiting an official investigation to confirm the exact cause of the incident. The conflict began after Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, resulting in widespread civilian deaths and displacement.
Earlier in 2024, a New Zealand pilot was released by the same group after being held captive for 19 months following lengthy negotiations. Just a month prior to that, gunmen from the group had shot and killed another New Zealand helicopter pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, immediately after he landed.
