Jetstar pilot hostage video is published: Gaunt and pale abducted man is seen in message from the jungles of Indonesia

A video has been released of a New Zealand pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens who has been held hostage in West Papua by separatist rebels for more than a year.

Mr Mehrtens, a 38-year-old former Jetstar pilot, looks thin and pale and has a scraggly beard in the video, which he said was recorded on December 22, 2023.

“It’s me,” says Mr. Mehrtens with a suppressed laugh.

“I’m doing well, they’re treating me well,” he continues, smiling.

“I’m trying to stay positive and I hope you and Jacob are healthy, doing well and getting support.”

He appeared to be directing the video to his wife Maria and six-year-old son.

Mr Mehrtens said he had met with the “komandant”, likely a reference to Egianus Kogoya, a commander of the rebel West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-PB) fighting the Indonesian annexation of the area.

The Komandant had agreed to allow Mr. Mehrtens to make the video and that it would be sent as soon as the Internet was available.

Mr Mehrtens said he would also talk to the commander about calling his family.

“I love and miss you both very much, and I hope to speak to you again soon,” he says.

Two months ago, separatist rebels threatened to execute Mehrtens, whom they kidnapped in February last year, if their demands were not met.

Mr. Mehrtens was working for an Indonesian aviation company when he was kidnapped after landing his single-engine Susi Air plane on a remote airstrip in the mountainous Nduga province, located in Indonesia’s western half of New Guinea.

A day after he was captured, the group said in a video that he “will die here” like “the rest of us” if the Indonesian military tried to rescue him.

The West Papua Liberation Army group, the armed wing of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), seized Mr Mehrtens before setting fire to his plane on the airstrip in Paro in the remote Nduga district on February 7 (photo)

Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region earlier released a chilling video in which they appeared to hold weapons to the head of Mr Mehrtens, a captured pilot.

Rebel separatists spokesman Sebby Sambom wrote on Facebook that Mr Mehrtens will be held hostage for negotiations with Indonesia – but warned that if Jakarta refused to negotiate or intervene militarily, the pilot “will be executed”.

Sambom said at the time that the rebels would “never release” Mehrtens unless Jakarta made the Papua region independent from Indonesia.

But the Indonesian government stood firm, saying Papua will remain “forever a legitimate part” of Indonesia.

Mr Mehrtens was kidnapped shortly after landing in Paro in West Papua’s remote Nguda province

Mr Mehrtens met his wife Maria in Indonesia, while the couple moved to New Zealand and lived in Auckland while Mr Mehrtens worked for Jetstar.

The couple then returned to Indonesia when he rejoined Susi Air, founded in 2004, which operates a fleet of 50 aircraft.

Separatist rebels kidnapped him after storming a single-engine Indonesian Susi Airlines plane in February, shortly after it landed on a small airstrip.

He reportedly evacuated 15 construction workers building a health center in the district after separatist rebels threatened to kill them.

“Our plan to evacuate the workers angered the rebels, who responded by setting the plane on fire and seizing the pilot,” said Nduga district chief Namia Gwijangge, one of the passengers. “We deeply regret this incident.”

The rebels released all five passengers because they were native Papuans, rebel spokesman Sebby Sambom said at the time.