JAYAPURA (Jakarta Post / Pacific Media Watch): Letogo Kagoya, 35, who was killed during an armed attack on an airplane at Mulia Airport in the Puncak Jaya regency in West Papua on Sunday, was a journalist with the Papua Post of Nabire who was assigned to cover Puncak Jaya's regional elections.
"He was one of our journalists. He had been assigned to the Puncak Jaya regency for over a year. He was a native of that region and often did round trips between Nabire and Puncak Jaya," said Papua Post of Nabire chief editor Angel Berta Sinaga, as reported by Tempo.
Angel still doesn't know the full details of what happened to Letogo.
Letogo had departed from Nabire in the morning to head to Puncak Jaya.
Letogo was assigned to help a colleague, Frangky Pelle, covering Puncak Jaya's regional elections.
Angel was very saddened by the incident as he had always considered Letogo as family. Letogo had often hung around Angel's family since childhood.
"Right now, we are coordinating with Letogo's family in Puncak Jaya,"
Angel said.
An unidentified armed group attacked the Trigana Air plane after it had landed at Mulia Airport and was attempting to park. As a result of the attack, the pilots lost control of the aircraft and it crashed into a warehouse outside the airport's landing zone.
"The incident led to four injuries and one death," Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Johanes Nugroho said.
The injured included the plane's pilot Beby Astek, 40, and co-pilot 30-year-old Willy Resubun.
Passengers who were also injured include Yanti Korwa, a 30-year-old housewife, and four-year-old Pako Korwa.
"As of now the Army and The National Police are still pursuing the attackers," Johanes said.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
