You never know what today will bring...

"A 21-year-old Indonesian air traffic controller is credited with sacrificing himself to help a passenger jet escape the country's catastrophic earthquake that has killed hundreds of people.

Anthonius Gunawan Agung was on duty in Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport near the city of Palu on Friday, and he refused to leave the air traffic control tower until a plane set for takeoff was airborne even after the 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit, Indonesia's air traffic control company wrote on Twitter.

"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," the spokesman Yohanes Harry Sirai told Sky News.

Agung jumped from the four-story tower as it began to collapse. He suffered broken bones and internal injuries on landing that ultimately killed him.

The air traffic control company posted photos of Agung's body being saluted by lines of what appear to be soldiers and with the hashtag #RIPAgung.

Icoze Ezoci, the pilot of the plane, posted tributes to Agung on Instagram.

"Thank you for keeping me and guarding me till I'm safely airborne," he wrote. "Rest peacefully my wing man. God be with you."

Ezoci posted footage from the cockpit that he said showed the tsunami waves 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 get airborne." by Sinead Baker in Business Insider


From: https://www.businessinsider.co...g-jet-escape-2018-10

How terribly brave. RIP, young man....

A hero.
You never know where you're going to find one.

^so true

Wow, age-21 and had the presence to stick to his task until the plane was airborne.
RIP Agung

A quality human being right there.

At 21.... At 21 I was a knucklehead.

RIP, Sir. Your life was a gift to fellow man.

His sacrifice will not go unnoticed, either here or in Heaven.

A number of scriptures come to mind. This, to me, foremost among them. The Lord truly knew what He was speaking of when He said this often repeated scripture:

John 15:13

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

I love a sob story as much as the next, but what exactly does a controller accomplish by "watching over" a flight?

The pilot is perfectly capable of departing on his own without need of a controller, and once the clearance is received, there's nothing left for the controller, especially if nothing else is inbound.

It's unfortunate he was injured and died, but there was no valid reason to remain in the tower (ergo, the story is feel-good, but inaccurate). Sounds good, though.

The kid needed to give the plane clearance and then felt obligated to see it airborne. He likely was doomed by not scrambling to save his own ass as soon as he knew their was an earthquake.

quote:

Originally posted by bdylan:
The kid needed to give the plane clearance and then felt obligated to see it airborne.

He really didn't.

It's common when high winds occur, for example, for controllers to abandon a tower, even at busy airports with tall towers. I've landed at some airports where the controller has left the tower during the approach and isn't even in the building when I land, even in instrument conditions (Saudi Arabia).

In the case of an earthquake or impending tsunami, there is no reason a controller would feel a need to "see an airplane off," as the controller has nothing to contribute or do for the aircraft at that point. All the controller is doing in the tower is sequencing aircraft on the surface or in the air in the immediate area of the airport, and when there's no other movement, the controller's duty is minimal.

It sounds impressive that someone would sacrifice their life to "see the airplane safely into the air," but that's just not the case, and and the only thing the controller could actually do is watch the airplane roll, which he could do from anywhere as he's not actually assisting, helping, or providing anything once it's entered the runway.

In the case of an earthquake, nobody is going to remain behind and put their life in jeopardy to watch an airplane takeoff. The controller simply didn't get out on time. That's not heroic; it's just an unfortunate victim.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:

quote:

Originally posted by bdylan:
The kid needed to give the plane clearance and then felt obligated to see it airborne.

He really didn't.

It's common when high winds occur, for example, for controllers to abandon a tower, even at busy airports with tall towers. I've landed at some airports where the controller has left the tower during the approach and isn't even in the building when I land, even in instrument conditions (Saudi Arabia).

In the case of an earthquake or impending tsunami, there is no reason a controller would feel a need to "see an airplane off," as the controller has nothing to contribute or do for the aircraft at that point. All the controller is doing in the tower is sequencing aircraft on the surface or in the air in the immediate area of the airport, and when there's no other movement, the controller's duty is minimal.

It sounds impressive that someone would sacrifice their life to "see the airplane safely into the air," but that's just not the case, and and the only thing the controller could actually do is watch the airplane roll, which he could do from anywhere as he's not actually assisting, helping, or providing anything once it's entered the runway.

In the case of an earthquake, nobody is going to remain behind and put their life in jeopardy to watch an airplane takeoff. The controller simply didn't get out on time. That's not heroic; it's just an unfortunate victim.

That is very unfortunate. I really did want the guy to be heroic. Now, he's just dead.

Yeah, I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but after he said "CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF, GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE there is a TSUNAMI COMING" he should have run for his life.

At that point there is literally nothing he could do or did to 'ensure it got airborne'. It's up to the pilots to shove the throttles forward, get flying speed, and takeoff without delay.

I’m gonna cut this 21-year old ATC guy a little slack here.

A 50-year old grizzled vet working O’Hare, I would expect to be able to figure it all out.

21 years old? How many of us aviators had much judgment at 21? I’m sure somewhere in his training it said that “ensuring the airplane takes off safely” included watching it until it was safely off the field. What if they blew a motor or a tire and ended up in the grass? The tower guy is the first one to call and get the cavalry coming.

Also, it was during an earthquake. He might have been worried about the runway buckling and the plane having it’s gear sheared off.

Saying “Cleared for takeoff” might seem like the end of the responsibility of the tower for us in the jet, but it is not for them.

Young guy, newly checked out, trying to remember his training. Hero might not be the right word, but dedicated sure as hell is.

It's Indonesia, not KORD.

What would he do if there were an issue on the runway? Nothing.

Time to abandon the tower. Watching doesn't do squat.

How much judgement did we have as aviators at 21? This guy wasn't an aviator; he was a controller. as a 18 year old aviator, I was doing formation under powerlines, so I guess judgement is relative; the US military has 18 year olds in combat, and 18 year olds and 21 year olds take on an enormous amount of responsibility the world over.

All of that is irrelevant to what the controller could or would do, once cleared for takeoff, and frankly if I were facing an tsunami or an earthquake were underway, I wouldn't care one whit about receiving a clearance; from a pilot perspective, the controller's clearance becomes irrelevant at that point, let alone what he might do after the power levers go forward.

If the gear were to get "sheared off" during the takeoff, in the middle of an earthquake, what would or could the controller do? Roll the crash rescue on the buckled runway from the collapsed firehouse, in a place where crash rescue is relative and minimal?

It's very unfortunate that the controller was killed, along with hundreds of others; more likely thousands. The notion that there was any valid reason to remain in the tower for the takeoff, or departure, however, doesn't hold water.

Ah come on guppy, you are harshing everyone’s buzz.

As a pilot, I’ll admit to similar thoughts (after all, if their chairs are moving it is normally ‘cause they’re on castors), but that doesn’t mean that just because we “know” we don’t need them to get the bird in the air doesn’t mean they may not feel some responsibility.

Go ahead and believe whatever you want to believe, if it makes you feel better.

Jeez dude, relax. I didn’t ask what you would do. I was trying to figure out what was going through a 21-year old Indonesian tower controller’s head.

You don’t think they have CFR at that airfield? If the airplane did not take off for whatever reason, that tower guy was going to call CFR. Would it have done any good? Who knows. But I guarantee you that is what he was trained to do. And at 21 he has very little experience to make judgment calls. That is why I made the comparison to a grizzled old dude at KORD. He would be able to say “Screw this, nothing I can do, I’m outta here.”

I’m just saying that it’s always easy to say “He should have known better” after the fact. Shit, just today we were close to going around after getting held high from some dumbass transiting the terminal area then getting jammed into the sequence almost two dots above glideslope. Four guys onboard with well over 50,000 hours of combined experience and it took inputs from everyone to make it happen.

So one 21-year old guy alone in a tower stays too long to make sure an airplane takes off safely?

Yeah, I’m cutting him some slack. Again, not saying he is a hero, but dedicated to his training and his job.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
At 21.... At 21 I was a knucklehead.

Yeh, you probably threw ice cubes at people in bars. The FBI will be looking into your background if you run for Justice of the Supreme Court.