In earthquake, air traffic controller sacrifices himself to save flight

Anthonius Gunawan Agung would be alive today if he weren’t such a responsible air traffic controller.

Everyone else in the control tower fled as a series of earthquakes struck near Palu’s Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie airport, spawning the tsunami. He stayed. There was a plane waiting for instructions to take off.

“When the quake happened, he was giving clearance to Batik Air to take off and waited for the plane to be safely airborne before finally leaving the ATC cabin tower,” said AirNav Indonesia spokesman Yohanes Harry Sirait tells New Strait Times.

The plane safely in the air, Agung jumped from the collapsing tower.

He survived with a broken leg and internal injuries, but died at the hospital.