Papuan rebels say they’ve killed an American pilot for allegedly flying Indonesian troops into Papua. The Associated Press is reporting that the West Papua Liberation Army claimed to have shot Nicolas F. Goselin and set fire to the Pilatus Porter he was flying at the village of Balinggama on Thursday. Some reports have said he was 30 years old and a native of Connecticut. The Indonesian government said Goselin and seven passengers, none of them soldiers, were on the aircraft. The passengers, including three women, were Papuan citizens and none were harmed. The aircraft was owned by Associated Mission Aviation, a Christian-based charter service that has been flying people and freight in the region since 1959. It’s not clear if the rebels shot the pilot for flying soldiers on previous flights or whether it was the Thursday flight that prompted the killing. The U.S. Embassy has not yet confirmed Goselin’s death or the circumstances surrounding it.
It’s an escalation of the decades-old conflict between the separatist militia and Indonesia, which has administered West Papua since a controversial 1969 referendum put the western section of the island that also contains New Guinea under the Indonesian government. Pilots are frequently targeted by separatists and a New Zealand pilot was held for almost two years before being released in 2025.
A Papua separatist group has shot dead an American pilot who allegedly transported Indonesian troops into the restive province.
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) July 2, 2026
A spokesman for the West Papua Liberation Army, or TPNPB, said its fighters fatally shot Nicholas F. Goselin and set fire to an aircraft operated by PT… pic.twitter.com/dw8oF4lVF7
Not much luv there. Turn the other cheek only when wearing full body armour.
Nick was a very nice guy. I just visited with him two months ago in Palmer, AK. He was quite enthusiastic about the people of Papua who cleared and maintained difficult runways to have the capability of air service. He pursued Pilatus Porter flying because he was drawn to the airplane.
Very sad to hear this loss.
So sickening…why can’t we all just get along and love each other?
You all enjoy the 4th celebration!
As I grew up in Australia, as a kid I remember Papua-New Guinea being administered by the United Nations (really Australia) and I was unaware that a referendum changed administration to Indonesia. The Papua-New Guinea as a country is corrupt, police and government employees and officials with their hands out at every level. So what is Indonesia doing about it?
PNG is a different country, formerly Germany and British territory. Papua, Indonesia was the Dutch colony of Dutch New Guinea, adjacent to the Dutch East Indies which gained independence after World War II, until the early 60s when Indonesia took over.
A couple years ago another pilot at that operator told me they have a policy of not flying any known police, military, or rebel personnel or cargo. I think their example was offloading a box of food when they saw it was addressed to a police office, and they occasionally had to refuse to take a police officer as a passenger due to their policy.
I wonder if that changed or if it is just an excuse. I recall MAF had a plane burnt there a number of years ago, and the rebels also claimed it was because they were flying police and soldiers.
Humanitarian flight operations in certain countries can be and are fraught with local and national cultural and political considerations which make the actual flying seem easy and almost risk free by comparison.
An example from my experience was having to inaugurate two different airstrips within seven kilometers of each other because there was no social middle ground between the two respective communities. Landing in one community without also landing in the other represented a future hazard worse than the kind of airstrip pictured in this story.