An American pilot was shot and killed before armed separatists set his plane on fire after it landed at a remote airstrip in Indonesia’s conflict-torn Papua region.
The pilot was identified as Nicholas F. Gosselin, although some official reports and wire stories spelled his last name Goselin. He was killed on Thursday, July 2, shortly after landing at the Ipdeheik airstrip in Balinggama village, located in the Yahukimo regency of Highland Papua province.
Gosselin was flying a small aircraft operated by PT Associated Mission Aviation, also known as PT AMA. The Indonesian aviation company transports passengers, food, fuel, mail and other essential supplies to isolated villages that are difficult or impossible to reach by road.
The plane had reportedly departed from Wamena and was carrying seven passengers, all of whom were Indigenous Papuans.
Gosselin contacted officials to report that the plane had safely landed, but communication with personnel at the airstrip was lost shortly afterward.
All seven passengers escaped the attack unharmed and later returned home, Indonesian military officials said.
Members of the West Papua National Liberation Army, known as the TPNPB, claimed responsibility for the killing.
The armed separatist group said its fighters shot Gosselin after the aircraft landed and then burned the plane.
A video distributed by the group showed armed fighters carrying guns and axes near the charred aircraft while raising the Morning Star flag, a symbol of the Papuan independence movement.
Sebby Sambom, a spokesperson for the TPNPB, described the attack as a direct message to the governments of Indonesia and the United States.
He accused both governments of failing to address what the group considers the root causes of the decades-long conflict between Indonesian security forces and Papuan separatists.
Sambom also alleged that the aircraft had repeatedly transported Indonesian military personnel into rebel-controlled territory and had violated an ultimatum banning civilian flights from entering what the group calls its operational “red zones.”
“We had issued an ultimatum prohibiting all civilian aircraft from entering the TPNPB region,” Sambom said, according to reports.
He warned that additional aircraft could be attacked if civilian operators continue flying into areas controlled by separatist forces.
Indonesia’s military strongly denied the claim that Gosselin’s flight was carrying soldiers.
Military officials said the aircraft was operating as a civilian flight and that none of the seven passengers on board was a member of the Indonesian armed forces.
A military spokesperson in Papua later confirmed that the TPNPB was responsible for the attack and said Indonesian forces were searching for those involved.
Security forces launched a mission to recover Gosselin’s body on Friday, July 3.
The operation involved 10 members of the Habema Operations Command, who secured the remote airstrip before evacuating the pilot’s remains, according to Brig. Gen. Riyanto, the operation’s deputy commander.
Some reports said three helicopters were used during the evacuation effort.
The body was flown from the mountainous region and was expected to be transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.
The U.S. Embassy and U.S. Department of State did not immediately issue detailed public statements about the killing. Indonesia’s National Police, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and PT AMA also did not immediately provide additional comment.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Gosselin worked as a pilot for PT AMA and had previously flown aircraft in Alaska.
He attended Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts from 2014 until 2018.
The attack triggered an outpouring of grief on social media from people connected to Gosselin and the aviation community.
Photos verified by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation showed the aircraft’s burned remains sitting on a dusty airstrip. Other images showed Gosselin in a pilot’s uniform before his death.
The killing is the latest violent incident in a long-running conflict between Indigenous Papuan separatists and Indonesian security forces.
Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea, was formerly controlled by the Netherlands before being incorporated into Indonesia following a controversial United Nations-backed vote in 1969.
Independence supporters have long rejected that process as illegitimate, and a low-level insurgency has continued for decades.
The conflict has intensified in recent years, with rebels, soldiers, police officers and civilians killed in increasingly deadly confrontations.
Foreign pilots have also become targets because small aircraft are often the only way to transport people and supplies into Papua’s isolated mountain communities.
In February 2023, separatist fighters abducted New Zealand pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens after he landed in a remote area while working for Susi Air.
The group held Mehrtens hostage for more than a year and threatened to kill him unless its demands for independence were addressed. He was eventually released in September 2024 following negotiations with Indonesian authorities.
One month before Mehrtens was freed, separatist gunmen killed another New Zealand pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, shortly after his helicopter landed in a remote village in Central Papua’s Mimika district.
The Indigenous Papuan passengers traveling with Conning were reportedly released unharmed, echoing the circumstances surrounding the attack that killed Gosselin.
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