SEOUL, South Korea — Indonesian security forces recovered the body of an American pilot killed by rebels last week in the restive province of West Papua, according to footage posted online by Jakarta.
Nicholas F. Goselin, a pilot for an Indonesian aviation company, was killed by the secessionist West Papua Liberation Army after landing at Ipdeheik Airstrip near the village of Balinggama Thursday.
The aircraft he piloted was subsequently burned on the strip, which photos show was carved into a jungled hillside.
Seven Papuan civilians, including three women, who were in the aircraft with him were reportedly unharmed.
Bodycam footage shows a squad of heavily armed and armored troops from an Indonesian police-army task force fanning out tactically from a helicopter in highland terrain.
The clip cuts to the troops wrapping a body dressed in khaki trousers and a pale blue shirt in a tarpaulin, before evacuating, again by helicopter.
The recovery operation took place last Friday. The video was released over the weekend.
According to the Associated Press, rebel spokesman Sebby Sambom said the aircraft flown by Mr. Goselin violated an announced ban on civilian flights in areas the separatist group considers its operational zone.
“The shooting of pilot Nicholas F. Goselin is a warning to the U.N., the United States and the Netherlands to promptly resolve the conflict in Papua,” the spokesperson said, according to independent Indonesian media Tempo.
The Netherlands colonized West Papua prior to 1969, when it was taken over by Indonesia.
The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta has not commented publicly on the American’s death.
Mr. Goselin was flying a civilian aircraft. Rebels claim even civilian planes are being used for military operations.
Due to the rugged terrain of the Papuan highlands, aircraft, both fixed-wing and rotary, are key modes of transport.
”Aviation serves as a vital lifeline in the remote regions of Papua, and it is devastating to see those who dedicate their lives to this mission targeted in such a manner,” wrote Aviation 24/7, a specialist group with 273,000 followers, on social media.
Mr. Goselin was a pilot for Indonesian company PT Associated Mission Aviation. PT AMA states on its website that it services over 400 destinations across West Papua, using largely light aircraft.
According to Alaska News Source, Mr. Goselin, a Connecticut native, had previously flown as a bush pilot in that state.
He is not the first overseas pilot to fall afoul of rebels in one of East Asia’s least-reported low-intensity conflicts.
A New Zealand pilot was abducted by rebels in 2023, and held for 19 months before his release was secured by negotiations. Another pilot from New Zealand was abducted and killed in 2024.
Resource-rich West Papua, formerly a Dutch colony, was incorporated into Indonesia in1969, sparking a simmering, decades-long conflict.
It flared into renewed violence in 2025, after rebels killed 18 employees of a gold mine, sparking retaliation from Indonesian forces.
Indonesia-controlled West Papua, and the nearby independent states of Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea, are ethnically Melanesian-Papuan and predominantly Christian. Indonesia is ethnic Southeast Asian and majority Muslim.
Jakarta has long kept a close watch over the area, fearing that secessionism could spill over into other parts of the vast Indonesian archipelago, home to 288 million.
It was also mindful, particularly after the fall of pro-U.S. regimes in Saigon and Phnom Penh in 1975, of communist influence taking hold on its southwestern flank.
That threat was a factor in Indonesia’s invasion of former Portuguese colony Timor-Leste in 1975, leading to decades of brutal guerrilla warfare before the territory was finally granted independence in 2002.
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