Since 1979, the Indonesian Air Force has celebrated a Service Day (Hari Bakti) in commemoration of the crash and in remembrance of the deaths.

In gap between the time of Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945 and the arrival of Allied forces in central and western parts of Indonesia, there was a political vacuum which was used by Indonesian nationalist.

On 5 October of that year the de facto Indonesian government formed a national military, including provisions for an air force.

[1][2] The first pilot in this new air force was Commodore Agustinus Adisucipto, who had flown the first Indonesian aircraft, a Yokosuka K5Y (known locally as a Cureng) left by the Japanese empire.

[1] Another commodore, Abdul Rahman Saleh, established the Air Force Technical School in Malang, East Java.

Tensions grew as Indonesians believed that Allied forces had agendas to stamp out their independence and to restore the Netherlands' control in their former colony.

[6] Under orders from Sukarno, Adisucipto and Saleh chartered a Douglas C-47B-20-DK from Bijoyanda Patnaik, an Indian national and owner of Kalinga Airlines, to transport medical supplies donated by the Red Cross of Malaya to the Red Cross of Indonesia.

In retaliation, the Indonesian air force (with two "Willow" biplanes and a "Sonia" dive bomber) bombed Dutch strongholds in Semarang, Salatiga and Ambarawa on early hours of 29 July which did little damage and no casualty.

After bullets destroyed the left engine, the aircraft went into a dive, first crashing into a tree then into paddy fields in Ngoto, Bantul.