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The flight to freedom of Phillip Mehrtens, the NZ pilot who survived 594 days in captivity
In February 2023 his plane was stormed by independence fighters in West Papua who said he may never be released and threatened to kill him. Somehow, Mehrtens survived and is now a free man
On 7 February 2023, Phillip Mehrtens’ life took an unexpected and harrowing turn.
The experienced New Zealand pilot landed his tiny commercial plane at Paro airfield, a runway in the isolated highlands of Indonesia’s West Papua region. It was to be a short in and out: drop off his five passengers, pick up a group of 15 construction workers and fly back south.
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