Indonesia recovers body of American pilot killed in West Papua separatist attack, Jakarta says

Indonesian security forces have recovered the body of an American pilot killed during a separatist attack in the mountainous Papua Highlands region, Jakarta said on July 5, releasing video footage showing the recovery operation. The killing followed the pilot’s reported landing last week at a remote airstrip, after which contact was lost, and his aircraft was later burned. The incident has raised immediate concerns for aviation safety in a long-running insurgency zone and prompted attention from U.S. officials monitoring Indonesia’s investigation.

Indonesia’s military said the pilot was Nicholas F. Goselin, a pilot for Indonesian aviation company PT AMA. Goselin was shot dead on Thursday shortly after he landed at the Ipdeheik airstrip in Balinggama village, in the Yahukimo regency. According to the military, troops carried out an evacuation after securing the remote airstrip in what it described as a rapid operation.

A military commander told reporters that the evacuation involved 10 personnel from the Habema Operations Command. Brig. Gen. Riyanto, deputy commander of the operation, said the recovery effort began after troops secured the area, allowing crews to retrieve the remains and handle the situation at the site. Indonesian authorities also said they had lost contact with the airstrip shortly after Goselin reported the plane landing.

Officials said the aircraft carried one pilot and seven passengers, and that the plane’s disappearance from communications occurred soon after it landed. Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement that the flight carried eight people in total. The civil aviation agency did not indicate whether any passengers survived in the accounts summarized by regional and international reporting.

Separatist rebels claimed responsibility for the attack and posted a video distributed to media through the West Papua Liberation Army, an armed wing of the Free Papua Movement. The rebels said they shot and killed Goselin, and they described the attack as a response to what they described as a violation of a ban on civilian flights in areas they consider part of their operational zone. They also raised the Morning Star flag, a symbol used by some Papuan independence supporters.

Rebel spokesman Sebby Sambom alleged that civilian aircraft are used to transport Indonesian military personnel and logistics into Papua’s remote interior and said the American pilot was killed because the aircraft continued operating despite the group’s warning. The report characterizes those claims as not independently confirmed in the immediate aftermath.

Separately, the U.S. government said it was keeping an eye on how Indonesian authorities investigate the killing. Jakarta Globe reported that U.S. officials were monitoring the probe, while Indonesian agencies continued to assemble information on the circumstances surrounding the landing, the loss of contact, and the subsequent attack.

For families and local communities in Papua, the incident underscores the operational risk posed by sustained violence between separatist forces and Indonesian security units in the region. It also places pressure on authorities to clarify flight security procedures for remote airstrips and to coordinate investigations that can address questions about how a civilian flight entered a contested area and how communication failures and ground conditions affected both passengers and crews.