On 2 October 2015, the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft serving the route went missing with 10 on board near Palopo minutes after takeoff.

National Transportation Safety Committee released the final report in January 2017 and concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error.

They found out that both pilots agreed to deviate the plane from its designated route and decided to "take a shortcut", and thus cutting the travel time of the airplane.

Aviastar was temporarily suspended by the Indonesian government following the crash and all its entire fleet was grounded, but the airline resumed limited operations afterwards.

[3] It was expected to land in Makassar one hour later at 15:25, but eleven minutes after take-off, the plane lost contact with the control tower.

[6] Immediately after the crash, the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) set up a crisis centre in Makassar.

As nightfall approached, the search was suspended, even though citizens in the regency of Palopo claimed that they saw a "very low" flying plane in the area.

In a press conference, BASARNAS reported that the position of the missing plane was around 14 nautical square miles.

The Vice Governor of South Sulawesi, Agus Arifin Nu'mang joined the search for the flight from the ground.

[11] As the search widened, assistance from various government organizations also arrived, including BPBD, Indonesian Red Cross and the IRC.

A young student claimed that the plane was flying very low, and had smoke on the wing, then impacted the sea at the Luwu shoreline.

[17] In the afternoon, at 15:55 WITA, some personnel of BASARNAS and the Indonesian police found debris on Latimojong Mountain.

[21][22] The pilot and the co-pilot as released by Aviastar, were: As investigators arrived at the crash site, they suspected that the plane bounced twice before it exploded and burned.

The weather data on the crash site also revealed that there were clouds on the "shortcut" route, which would limit their visibility.

Investigators considered the Situational Awareness and the process of the decision making to fly direct to Barru.

This might have caused one of the crew to trust the one that had done it before in the past to cut the route and make a direct flight to Barru.

The absence of discussion in regard to the conditions ahead meant that the pilots had not properly considered the operational implications of flying the direct route, leading to a loss of situational awareness.