[1] The aircraft overran the runway, crashed into a rice field and burst into flames while landing at Adisucipto International Airport on 7 March 2007.

According to Australian aviation experts, Garuda Indonesia had one of the worst safety records among the world's national carriers.

[7] The deadliest accident was in 1997, when Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 flew into a wooded mountain on approach to Medan, killing 234 people.

The managing director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Peter Harbison, stated that the major accidents in Indonesian aviation history were all caused by the combinations of airports' and fleets' low safety standards and the poor weather conditions in the area, including severe thunderstorms and other forms of inclement weather.

[7] Flight GA200 originated in Jakarta and was carrying 133 passengers, 21 of whom were foreigners (10 Australians, 2 Americans, 2 Bruneians, 5 Germans and 2 South Koreans).

[1] Several Australian journalists were on the flight, covering the visit of Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock to Java.

[9] At around 7:00 am local time (UTC+7),[2]: 2  the captain attempted to land at Adisutjipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, despite a faulty approach with excess speed and steep descent, and the resulting warnings of copilot and flight system.

[11] The aircraft overran the end of the runway, went through the perimeter fence, was heavily damaged when it crossed a road, and stopped in a nearby rice field.

[13] Captain Komar initially claimed that there was a sudden downdraft immediately before the flight landed, and that the flaps on the aircraft may have malfunctioned.

The United States' National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) dispatched a team to assist in the investigation, including representatives from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The copilot failed to take control of the aircraft in these extraordinary circumstances, as required by airline policy, apparently due to inadequate training.

Short of that finding, the lesser charge of negligent flying causing death carries a maximum sentence of seven years.

[23] On 29 September 2009 the Indonesian High Court overturned the conviction,[24] finding that the prosecutors had failed to prove that the pilot was "officially and convincingly guilty of a crime".

[25] This case was later cited in a report published by the American Bar Association, in a defence of the principle that airline safety is undermined by such prosecutions because the threat of them taking place would impede the investigative processes.

[26] The ban was a watershed moment for Garuda, leading to widespread reforms within the airline to improve both its safety and service standards.