An armed separatist group in Indonesia shot and killed an American pilot on Thursday and burned down his plane. Nicholas F. Goselin, a pilot for Indonesian aviation company PT AMA, was killed shortly after he landed at the Ipdeheik airstrip in Balinggama village of the Yahukimo regency in the mountainous province of Papua Highlands.The West Papua National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, soon took credit for the attack in a video showing rebels armed with guns and axes raising the Morning Star flag - a symbol of Papuan independence.A decades-old insurgency in impoverished Papua between Indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces has spiked in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed. The rebels have especially targeted foreign pilots.They rebels claimed pilots have been ferrying Indonesian troops into the area, and asserted that Goselin's death sent 'a message.'The following day, Wirya Artadiguna, a military spokesperson in Papua, confirmed the separatist group had carried out the attack and said the body of the American pilot had been recovered and evacuated. Indonesia's civil aviation authority has said there were no security concerns raised when Goselin first brought the plane in to land, but soon contact was lost with the airstrip.The passengers, all of whom were locals, were unharmed in the attack, authorities said.Nicholas F. Goselin, a pilot for Indonesian aviation company PT AMA, was killed by Papuan separatists on ThursdayIndonesian soldiers recovered Goselin's body on Friday and evacuated his remainsThe military is seeking the perpetrators, he said, adding that all passengers on the flight are safe and have returned home.In a statement, rebel spokesman Sebby Sambom said the aircraft violated their ban on civilian flights in areas the separatist group considers its operational zones.He said the American pilot was killed because the aircraft continued operating despite the group´s warning. The claims could not be independently verified.Sambom then called on Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to open international negotiations aimed at resolving the decades-long conflict in Papua, which separatists say has resulted in civilian deaths and mass displacement.'The shooting of the American pilot is the result of the failure of the Indonesian, U.S. and Dutch governments, as well as the United Nations, to address the root causes of the conflict in Papua, which has persisted for 64 years,' he said in a statement.He also urged the United Nations to facilitate talks involving the Indonesian government, the TPNPB and Papuan representatives, and warned that the group would target other civilian aircraft it believes are assisting military operations in the region.'We are prepared to fire upon any civilian aircraft across the land of Papua that assists Indonesian military forces in transporting troops or military logistics,' Sambom said. Goselin had previously worked as a pilot in Alaska, his LinkedIn profile shows, and he attended Brightwater State University in Massachusetts from 2014 through 2018 But Goselin's friend, Kenneth Jagers, refuted those claims on social media.'He wasn't in West Papua to carry Indonesian troops. The people in his plane were indigenous and the rebels didn't lay a finger on them,' he wrote on Facebook. 'Nor was he a Christian Missionary pushing beliefs on people who didn't want them.'Nick was there, because in his opinion, it was the roughest bush flying in the world,' Jagers claimed.'He flew for nothing more than the love of the game. He chose the life he wanted to live, and lived it fearlessly.'Nick did not obey the rebel's no-fly zone,' Jagers continued. 'He did it because he flew people and supplies between villages with no roads.'He flew people having medical emergencies, he flew food and medicine, he flew people who had to travel and had no other way to do so.''The no-fly zone harms the people of Papua, and as such he did not respect it,' the friend asserted. 'His last trip was nothing but selflessness and an example of humanity at its finest.'Goselin had previously worked as a pilot in Alaska, his LinkedIn profile shows, and he attended Brightwater State University in Massachusetts from 2014 through 2018. A friend of Goselin's said he disagreed with the no-fly zone because it was harming people in the regionGoselin is not the first pilot to have been killed in the region.In February 2023, Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, abducted Philip Mark Mehrtens, a pilot from Christchurch, New Zealand, who was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air. He was freed in September 2024.In August 2024, TPNPB gunmen stormed a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, who worked for Indonesian aviation company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service. He was shot shortly after landing in a remote village in the Mimika district carrying several indigenous Papuans who were freed.Papua, a former Dutch colony, was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, under a United Nations-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham, triggering the protracted conflict.