7. Ricosetta Mafella
On the evening of September 28, 2018, Captain Ricosetta Mafella sat in the cockpit of Batik Air Flight 6231, preparing for a routine takeoff from Palu, Indonesia. The skies were calm, the runway clear; but something deep within him moved.
It wasn’t turbulence in the air, but a storm in his soul. A voice; silent yet insisten, urged him: Take off now.
Trusting this powerful instinct, Mafella urged his crew to accelerate their checks. Just three minutes ahead of schedule, the aircraft lifted into the sky. Below, an unimaginable tragedy was unfolding; a crushing 7.5 magnitude earthquake, followed by a roaring tsunami, was about to consume Palu.
As the jet ascended, Mafella looked back and saw the coastline vanish under a churning wave. Unbeknownst to him, the air traffic controller who cleared the flight; Anthonius Gunawan Agung, had stayed at his post to ensure their escape, sacrificing his own life.
That day, Mafella’s intuition and Agung’s heroism link together a miracle in the sky. Because one man listened to a whisper, and another chose duty over survival, 148 souls lived to see tomorrow.