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A 21-year-old Indonesian air traffic controller has been sacrificed to help a passenger plane escape the catastrophic earthquake that has killed hundreds of people.
Anthonius Gunawan Agung was serving at the Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport, near the city of Palu, and refused to leave the air traffic control tower until the plane took off, even after the magnitude 7.5 earthquake, The Indonesian air traffic control company wrote on Twitter.
Spokesman, Yohanes Harry Sirai, told Sky News: "When the earthquake took place, he gave Batik Air permission to take off and waited for the plane to be safe before leave the control tower of the ATC cabin. "
Agung jumped off the four-story tower as he began to collapse. He suffered fractures and injuries on landing that eventually killed him.
The air traffic control company has released photos of Agung's body greeted by lines of what appears to be soldiers and with the hashtag #RIPAgung.
Icoze Ezoci, the pilot of the plane rescued, paid tribute to Agung on Instagram.
"Thank you for keeping me and keeping me safe until I'm safe," he writes. "Rest quietly my wingman, may God be with you."
Ezoci has posted images of the cockpit, in which he said he showed the waves of tsunami that followed the earthquake.
He said that if he had tried to take off 30 seconds later, he and his passengers would not have been able to take off.
The earthquake and tsunami that followed killed more than 800 people, but the authorities fear that thousands will have died. Indonesian authorities are striving to find food, aid and supplies for the quake-hit island of Sulawesi, where hundreds of people are believed to be trapped.
The airport has suffered heavy damage but has reopened for limited commercial flights, Reuters news agency reported.
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