Authorities have deployed a joint team to evacuate a foreign pilot who was allegedly taken hostage by separatist fighters in the restive Papua region on Tuesday, after their commercial plane was set on fire upon landing safely in the remote regency of Nduga.

A joint search and rescue operation, codenamed Peaceful Carstensz, was launched by the National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) in an effort to locate New Zealand national Philip Merthens, who was “secured” alongside five passengers after landing on an airstrip in the Papuan highlands. The name Carstensz is a nod to the mountainous region where the incident occurred.

The whereabouts of Merthens, a pilot employed by the frontier airline carrier Susi Air, were still unclear due to conflicting information issued on Wednesday.

Source:
courtesy of THE JAKARTA POST

by Yerica Lai and A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post)

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