A-1324 (serial number - 4927, model L-82), was delivered from the 32nd Transport Squadron in June 1982.[2] The military flight was from Jakarta to Bandung,[3] and mainly consisted of Paskhas, (also called Orange Berets), returning to base after participating in an Indonesian Armed Forces Day ceremony.[4]
The aircraft had a crew of 12 and 122 airman passengers. The aircraft departed at 15:00 local time when, according to eyewitnesses on the ground, one of the engines caught on fire. The fire presumably damaged the wing mechanism, causing the left engine to fail. The aircraft lost control, crashed into the Training Center of the Ministry of Labor, and exploded. Rescue operations were hampered by heavy rain which began an hour after the crash. One of the pilots, Major Samsul Ilham, was found in the wreckage alive but seriously injured. He later died in the hospital the same day.
A man survived the crash. Two people on the ground were also killed. With 135 fatalities, the crash was the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Indonesia until the crash of Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 in 1997. It is now the sixth-deadliest.[1][3][5]