Pastor Ezekiel Diani’s plane crash divine warning has gripped the faithful and the fearful alike, as the fiery New Life Prayer Centre and Church founder opened up about dodging death on that doomed October 28 flight, crediting a midnight spiritual nudge that swapped his seat for a safer rail journey and left him unscathed amid the wreckage claiming 11 souls.
The revelation landed like a thunderclap in a coastal storm, shared via a raw, unpolished video that Ezekiel posted to his church’s YouTube channel late Tuesday.
Filmed in the dim glow of his Mavueni sanctuary, the 42-year-old preacher, known for his booming sermons on prosperity and protection, sat cross-legged on a woven mat, Bible open on his lap.
“Brethren, God speaks in the quiet hours,” he began, his voice a gravelly rumble that hushed the room’s shadows.
“I was set to board that light aircraft to Diani; ministry calls were pulling me south. Tickets booked, bags packed.
But at midnight, during prayers, a voice clear as Lake Victoria’s call said, ‘Stay grounded.’ I cancelled on the spot and hopped a bus from Kilifi. Hours later, news of the crash hit like judgement day.”
The doomed Dornier 228, a charter from a private firm ferrying government officials for a development tour, lifted off from Mombasa’s Moi International around 9 AM, bound for the white sands of Diani.
Eyewitnesses near Ukunda Airstrip described a routine approach gone grim: the plane dipping low over palm fringes before clipping treetops and erupting in a fireball of twisted metal and acrid smoke.
All aboard perished instantly, the manifest a sombre roll call of mid-level mandarins from the Environment Ministry, two pilots, and crew, their briefcases of blueprints now buried in the crash site’s scorched earth.
Kenya’s Civil Aviation Authority pegged engine failure as the likely culprit, with probes underway by experts from Addis, but for Ezekiel, it was pure providence.
His escape tale resonates deep in a nation where faith fills pews faster than matatus at rush hour.
Ezekiel, who rose from Kilifi’s dusty backroads to helm a megachurch drawing thousands weekly, has long peddled tales of heavenly hedges against hellish odds.
This one, though, feels personal, a bullet dodged that bolsters his brand as the “Miracle Man of the Coast”. Online, testimonies flooded in: “God used you to show us signs are real,” typed one devotee from Malindi, her comment pinned amid a sea of prayer hands emojis.
Sceptics, scrolling from Nairobi’s cafes, rolled their eyes at the timing, but even they couldn’t deny the chill of what-ifs. “Trained to Diani, crashed at touchdown,” noted aviation blogger Kipkoech arap Tanui in a thread.
The pastor’s pivot to rails wasn’t just instinct; it echoed his teachings on discerning spirits. “I felt it in my bones, a pull stronger than politics or plans,” he elaborated in the video, pausing to sip from a clay mug of herbal tea.
That SGR ride from Miritini, rattling through banana groves and over giraffe-dotted plains, gave him space to preach impromptu from a first-class berth, live streaming to followers glued to their screens.
By the time alerts buzzed about the crash, he was knee-deep in a beachside revival, oblivious until a deacon’s frantic call.
“Praise turned to intercession,” Ezekiel recounted, eyes misting. “Those 11, their families, we lift them. My survival? A call to warn others: Listen when heaven whispers.”
For Ezekiel’s church, the story’s a sermon goldmine, with spin-off clips teasing the “Lessons from the List” series starting Sunday.
Pastor Ezekiel Diani’s plane crash divine warning isn’t mere survivor spin; it’s a spark in Kenya’s spiritual tinderbox, where near misses fuel faith’s fire.