Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region say they killed an American pilot and torched his plane, calling it a “message” to the US and Indonesian governments.

Getting into it: According to Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the group’s fighters killed pilot Nicholas F. Gosselin and set his aircraft on fire after it landed in the Yahukimo region of Highland Papua province on Thursday. He said the rebels had banned civilian flights across areas they consider their operational zones, accusing the aircraft of ferrying Indonesian troops.

“We immediately fired upon and burned the plane because it had violated the TPNPB ultimatum,” he said. He also warned the group was ready to fire on any civilian aircraft in Papua it believes is helping move Indonesian troops or military supplies.

Indonesian officials confirmed that a plane flown by an American, with seven passengers aboard, had turned up burned at a Yahukimo airport, but stopped short of confirming a rebel attack or the pilot’s death. Yusuf Sutejo, a spokesman for the joint police-military operations, said the rugged terrain, reachable only by air, was complicating efforts to verify the condition of everyone on board. The plane, owned by operator PT AMA, had flown in from Wamena carrying food, fuel and mail, cargo typical for the region.

The Indonesian military denied the aircraft was carrying troops, saying the seven passengers were all Indigenous Papuan civilians, including three women, and that they were unharmed. Bad weather forced an evacuation team to abandon its Thursday attempt to reach the site, and the team ultimately recovered his body days later.

This all comes as the group’s targeting of foreign pilots continues a pattern, following the 2023 kidnapping of New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens, freed after 19 months, and the 2024 killing of New Zealand helicopter pilot Glen Malcolm Conning, gunned down soon after he set his chopper down in a remote village.