Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 (Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 152) was also in the area at the time. Earlier in the day, another Flight 152, Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 152, was handled by the same air traffic controller. This led to the controller mistakenly saying "Merpati one five two turn left heading 240 to intercept runway zero five from the right side"; as the wrong call sign was used, the Garuda pilots disregarded these instructions. The controller, on not receiving a response, queried the pilots on if they heard the instructions; this time the correct call sign "Indonesia 152" was used. The controller then repeated
Garuda Indonesia Flight 865 involved was the fifth of the six, PK-GIE. The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, registration PK-GIE. One of six (PK-GIA to PK-GIF) in the Garuda fleet at the time of the accident, it had its first flight on 24 April 1979 and was delivered to Garuda Indonesia on 27 July 1979. Eighteen years and eleven months old at the time of the accident, it was the 284th DC-10 built; its MSN number was 46685. The aircraft had three General Electric CF6-50C2 turbofan engines for propulsion. The cause of the engine failure leading to the crash was that the