The deadly shooting of a plane at Mulia
Airport, Puncak Jaya in Papua, east Indonesia by an unknown armed group, has
prompted flight operator PT Trigana Air Service to suspend services to the
regency.
"The
management will not run flights to Mulia. They will resume when security is
guaranteed by the authorities,” the company’s general manager Bustomi Eka said
when contacted by The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
The
company has been servicing flight routes to the province since 1992.
The
incident on Sunday was reported to have taken place at 8:21 a.m. local time
(Papua is two hours ahead of Jakarta).
A
Trigana plane with the registration number of PK-YRF and with five people on
board came under fire when touching down. The perpetrators were believed to
have opened fire from a nearby hill.
The
shooting caused the pilot to lose control of the plane, which plowed into a
warehouse.
A
passenger, named Leiron Kogoya, 35, a journalist with the Papua Post of Nabire,
was killed and the other four people, including the pilot and co-pilot, were
injured.
Leiron
sustained fatal injuries to the neck. The bullets injured pilot Beby Astek, 40,
on the left ankle; co-pilot Willy Resubun, 30, on the right arm; Yanti, 30, on
the right arm and Korwa, 4, on his left hand.
"Police
personnel and soldiers are in pursuit of the perpetrators,” Johanes Nugraha
Wicaksono, the spokesperson of Papua Police, told the Post.
Leiron,
who was covering the Puncak Jaya election, was the third victim of a string of
mysterious shooting incidents in the regency this year.
Kismarovit
was shot dead on January 20 and Sukarno, a member of the Mobile Brigade
(Brimob) police unit, was ambushed on January 28.
The
shootings have haunted the regency since 2010 but the authorities have yet to
catch any perpetrators. The Trigana incident may indicate that the armed group
is broadening its targets.
Flight
stoppages have worried some residents.
“If
true, the stoppages will set us back. Trigana has been carrying our daily
needs,” Agus, a resident of Mulia, said.
Land
transportation, he said, had also become vulnerable to attacks and needed
escort by security personnel.
The
director of Imparsial, a human rights organisation, Poengky Indarti said that
the Trigana incident showed the vulnerability to attacks and made the area
isolated.
She
suspected a group of people had plotted the attack in order to gain commercial
benefit from a chaotic situation.
"It’s
very likely they will offer security escort services. I suspect any group
trying to create chaos in Mulia,” she said.
Nethy
Dharma Somba
The
Jakarta Post
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