A helicopter pilot from Australia and two local workers were kidnapped at gunpoint in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea on Monday.
The Australian pilot and its passengers landed at a remote telecommunications site near Mount Sisa in Hela province when an armed group kidnapped them at gunpoint.
The armed group eventually released the three workers after hours of negotiations with authorities.
Papua New Guinea police commissioner David Manning said the abductors are being tracked so they could pay for their crime.
Manning described the perpetrators as domestic terrorists and warned the government had enough dealing with them while in pursuit of the said criminals.