Garuda Indonesia Colombo, Bombay, and Prague. Rome and Paris became the airline's third and fourth European destinations, with flights stopping in Bombay and Cairo to refuel. Flights to the People's Republic of China began that same year, with service to Canton via Phnom Penh, the first Indonesian airline to do so. During the early 1970s, Garuda Indonesia took delivery of both the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Fokker F28 Fellowship for its short and medium-haul operations. The airline went on to take delivery of 62 F28s, holding the title for the largest operator of the F28 in the world. In 1976, the airline
Garuda Indonesia Flight 035 Garuda Indonesia Flight 035 Garuda Indonesia Flight 035 was a domestic Garuda Indonesia flight that struck a pylon and crashed on approach to Medan-Polonia Airport on 4 April 1987. 23 of the 45 passengers and crew on board were killed in the accident. The aircraft was on an Instrument Landing System approach to Medan Airport in a thunderstorm. The aircraft struck electrical power lines and crashed short of the runway. The aircraft broke up and the tail section separated and fire broke out. Most of the survivors escaped through breaks in the fuselage and 11 were flung free of the