I have deleted as requested.

However the info was and is already in the the public domain on various Indo news media outlets and social media.

Apologies if it caused offence for anyone.

Sal

Thank you for that. Being thousands of miles/kms from said territory, I'm grateful for the clarification. It's hard sometimes to understand what goes on down there.

Yeah, just another arbitrary line on a map draw by colonial powers dividing people and causing this sort of mayhem for decades into the future.

Plus the acquiescence of various Countries in allowing Indonesia to claim the Territory for themselves after WW11. After all, it is shown in some maps as being 'West Irian.'

Incidentally, langtaimbak, a Friend used to fly from Wewak into Jayapura on a regular basis. He told me that once he walked into a Newagency/bookshop in Jayapura and happened to notice a School Atlas put out by the Indonesian Government for sale to Schoolkids. He picked it up and flicked through it. PNG was called "East Irian.'

Australia was listed as being 'South Irian.':hmm:

Curiously, the next time he went there, the Atlas was no longer for sale.

The Indonesians weren’t the only ones who were liberal with the truth. I remember visiting what is now the Hillcrest school in Sentani and seeing that library books had been edited by blacking out references to things like dinosaurs, fossils and anything else which went against the teaching that God created the world in 6000BC.

Hopefully this will have a happy ending for the pilot, but it won’t for the OPM. The indigenous population of West Papua was abandoned by the UN during the “act of no choice”, and no governments outside of Indonesia care any more.

Even PNG is not stable, let alone the barely governed West Papua. They used helicopter gunships to protect the electrical and mine workers in the highlands for good reason. Life is very cheap for the locals and some very eye opening occurrences when locals disagree can end up in very violent endings.

BBC World News pictures

Video released of captured NZ pilot by Papua separatists - BBC News

https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/...-nz-pilot-safe

​​​​​​​I hope the rebels understand that learning to fly takes more than a few days.............and destroying the aircraft adds a degree of complexity to their desire to become pilots.

Must be getting to the stage now, if it hasnt happened already, Madam Susi's pilots in the region should cease flying in those areas.

I certainly agree with that. But it would have to be a united action by the pilots (which is difficult to accomplish at Susi Air) because it is extremely difficult -- some would say impossible -- to get Susi herself to budge from a position based on risk.

Well it's been done before and it can be done again.

Agreed, but as you must know, it's not easy in the given context.

Nope but Susi is in a weaker position to protest than she has been in the past.

Massey058; Got any info as to why? Genuine question btw.

A few. But at a basic level the current global pilot market means that replacements for "insubordinate" pilots are not as easy to find. There has always been an acceptance that it's a challenging place to fly and the fatality rate across operators bares that out. This risk of being taken hostage will now be greater across the region and this is a much harder risk to avoid in some ways than avoiding CFIT, LOC-I or an overrun etc.

There is another fairly significant issue that I'll refrain from mentioning here but it does put the ball in the pilots court.

Makes you wonder if they've thought their tactics through, where would no air service leave them?

​​​​​​For the TPNPB it doesn't seem they have and that probably doesn't concern them. They have bigger goals. Are they achievable? Probably not in their lifetimes. It will take a concerted global effort to achieve freedom for West Papua.

Hopefully a negotiation position can be found that enables this particular situation to end.
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I have an update from an International Security consultancy firm.

I won't post here considering the last flak I got.

​​​​​​PM with professional credintials and I will consider sharing .

Obvoulsy no journalists.

​​​​​​

Salusa, have you ever heard of social media, free to air newspapers, or even better still just Google ?

There is no secret !

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....bd18e2441d.jpg