Kiwi pilot’s 19-month captivity under Indonesian militants ends

New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been freed more than 19 months after being kidnapped by armed separatists in Indonesia’s Papua, authorities said on Saturday. Mehrtens was freed and picked up by a joint team in the Nduga area, after undergoing health check-ups and a psychological examination in Timika regency, the Indonesian police said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Indonesian police, Bayu Suseno, said Mehrtens will be flown to Jakarta in an air force plane and is estimated to arrive at the Halim Perdanakusuma airbase in east Jakarta. A faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), led by Egianus Kogoya, kidnapped Mehrtens on February 7, 2023, after he landed a small commercial plane in the remote, mountainous area of Nduga.

New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon said on X he was grateful Mehrtens had been released. In August, another New Zealand pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, was killed by separatist rebels in Papua after landing his helicopter in a remote area, authorities said at the time.

In 1996, the Free Papua Movement abducted 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund research mission in Mapenduma. Two kidnapped Indonesians were killed by their abductors. The remaining hostages were freed within five months.