Lion Air Flight 538
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 · Runway overrun due to hydroplaning aggravated by a wind shear and Microburst
From Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK) to Juanda International Airport (SUB)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05RA020
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 25 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 163
- Survivors
- 138
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 109
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
McDonnell Douglas MD-82
- Flight
- JT538
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-82
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- PK-LMN
- Operator
- Lion Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 25
- Route
- From Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)To Juanda International Airport (SUB)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Not recorded
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Adisoemarmo International Airport, the airport the Wikipedia article names as the site. Where on or near it is not known.
From the Wikipedia article
Lion Air Flight 538 (JT538/LNI538) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Jakarta to Surabaya, with a stopover at Surakarta, all in Indonesia. On 30 November 2004, whilst landing at Surakarta, the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 overran the rain-soaked runway of Adi Sumarmo Airport, and impacted a concrete localizer antenna base beyond the end of the runway, causing the aircraft to break apart; 25 people on board were killed in the crash, including the captain.
The investigation conducted by the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee concluded that the crash was caused by hydroplaning, which was aggravated by wind shear.
Accident
Flight 538 took off from Jakarta at around 5:00 pm WIB (10:00 UTC), carrying a total of 146 passengers and seven crew members. Most of the passengers were members of the Nahdlatul Ulama, who were attending a national meeting held after the victorious result of the 2004 Indonesian Presidential Election. The flight was uneventful until its landing.
The flight arrived at the airport during dusk, around 6:00 pm WIB in heavy rain. A thunderstorm was reportedly present during the landing.
Flight 538 was configured appropriately for landing, touched down "smoothly" according to most passengers, and the thrust reversers were deployed. The aircraft, however, failed to slow adequately, overran the runway, and slammed into an embankment. The impact caused the floor of the front portion of the plane to collapse, reportedly killing many of the passengers. The aircraft split into two sections, coming to rest in the end of the runway, and fuel began to leak. Passengers had difficulty locating emergency exits in the waning light. Some of the passengers self-evacuated through the opening in the fuselage.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The newly elected Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered an immediate investigation onto the cause of the crash of Flight 538 and stated that the investigation should be open to the public to prevent unwanted rumors in the aftermath of the crash. Minister of Transportation Hatta Rajasa stated that the Transportation Department would evaluate the Indonesian airline operations in response to the crash of Flight 538 in addition to two other similar incidents that occurred on the same day.
The black box was subsequently found on December 1, 2004, and was transported to the Adi Sumarmo Emergency Operations Center.
A witness to the crash claimed that lightning struck the plane during its landing phase. According to him, the landing light and the interior lighting were extinguished after the strike.
Lion Air "claimed responsibility" for the crash and stated that they would pay the hospital bills of the survivors. However, they denied that the crash was caused by the airline's misconduct, and stated that weather was the main factor. According to them, Flight 538 experienced a tailwind during its landing, which explained why the plane did not stop. Others claimed that the brakes or the thrust reversers malfunctioned. The pilot did not put the throttle into flight idle, which caused the spoiler to retract, one of the reverse thrusts also was found to be faulty.
The preliminary report was published in 2005. Investigators stated that the plane's braking system was not at its optimum level. This condition was aggravated by weather conditions during the accident. Investigators also identified a faulty thrust reverser as one of the causes of the crash; they subsequently issued several recommendations to Lion Air.
Lion Air continues to use the flight number 538, but only on the Jakarta-Solo route, primarily operated by a Boeing 737-800 or Boeing 737-900ER.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Lion Air Flight 538” (revision 1374115551, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Lion Air Flight 538
- Article
- Lion Air Flight 538
- Revision
- 1374115551 · 2026-09-09 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q6555394
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record IAD05RA020
- Event ID
- 20050124X00096
- Case number
- IAD05RA020
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Lion Air Flight 538" (page 2553282, revision 1374115551); merged with NTSB case IAD05RA020 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: airport the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata code, OurAirports)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record IAD05RA020
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Lion Air Flight 538" and NTSB case IAD05RA020, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.