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 and sent a team of experts, led by the European Commission's Air Safety Administrator Federico Grandini to Indonesia to consider lifting the ban. In August 2007, the transportation minister of Indonesia announced that the EU would lift its ban hopefully sometime in October, stating that the ban was attributed to communication breakdown between the two parties and that discussions were in progress. In November 2007, Garuda announced its intention to fly to Amsterdam from Jakarta and Denpasar with either Airbus A330 or Boeing 777 aircraft if the EU lifted its ban, however, on 28 November 2007, the EU stated that