The flight to freedom of Phillip Mehrtens, the NZ pilot who survived 594 days in captivity | New Zealand

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…