Lion Air Flight 904
Boeing 737-8GP · Crashed into the sea on approach; controlled flight into water; failed go-around attempt
From Husein Sastranegara International Airport (BDO) to Denpasar I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA13RA074
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 108
- Survivors
- 108
- 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
- 46
- 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
Boeing 737-8GP
- Flight
- JT904
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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-LKS
- Operator
- Lion Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Husein Sastranegara International Airport (BDO)To Denpasar I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS)
- 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
- Part 129: Foreign
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Lion Air Flight 904 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Husein Sastranegara International Airport in Bandung to Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Indonesia. On 13 April 2013, the Boeing 737-800 operating the flight crashed into water short of the runway while on final approach to land. All 101 passengers and 7 crew on board survived the accident. At 3:10 p.m., the aircraft crashed approximately 0.6 nmi short of the seawall protecting the threshold of Runway 09. The aircraft's fuselage broke into two and 46 people were injured, 4 of them seriously.
Among the findings contained in the final investigation report was that the crew continued the approach in adverse weather conditions beyond the point at which the approved procedure would have required to abort the landing. The subsequent attempt to go around was made too late to avoid the impact with the sea. There were no issues with the aircraft and all systems were operating normally.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) published a preliminary report on 15 May 2013. Flight data showed that the aircraft continued to descend below the minimum descent altitude (MDA), which is 466 ft above ground level (AGL). The report found that at 890 ft AGL, the first officer reported that the runway was not in sight. At approximately 151 ft AGL, the pilot again stated he could not see the runway. Flight data showed that the pilots attempted to perform a go-around at approximately 20 ft AGL, but contacted the water surface moments later. The captain's go around decision came far too late. The bare minimum altitude for a 737 go around is 49 ft, as 30 ft of altitude is lost when executing the manoeuvre. There has been no indication that the aircraft suffered any mechanical malfunction. The final report was published in 2014.
In January 2017, Budi Waseso, the chief of Indonesia's national narcotics agency, alleged that the pilot of Lion Air Flight 904 was under the influence of drugs at the time of the accident, and had hallucinated that the sea was part of the runway. That claim directly contradicted the statement made after the accident by Indonesia's transport ministry, which said the pilots had not tested positive for drugs.
The NTSC concluded that the flight path became unstable below minimum descent altitude with the rate of descent exceeding 1000 ft/min. Analysis of the pitch angle versus engine power based on the flight data recorder,
The flight crew lost situational awareness and visual references as the aircraft entered a rain cloud during the final approach below minimum descent altitude. The Captain's go-around decision and execution was conducted at an altitude which was insufficient for it to be executed successfully. The pilots were not provided with timely and accurate weather information considering the weather around the airport and particularly on final approach was changing rapidly.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Lion Air Flight 904” (revision 1366762117, 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
NTSB narrative
On April 13, 2013, at about 1515 local time, Lionair flight JT-904, a Boeing 737-800, registration PK-LKS, crashed while on approach to Denpasar-Ngurah Rai Bali International Airport (DPS), Denpasar, Indonesia. Reports indicate that there were no fatalities; however, there were multiple injuries to the 101 passengers and 7 crew onboard. The domestic flight originated in Bandung Airport (BDO), Bandung, Indonesia. Weather reported at the time of the accident was wind 090 degrees at 6 knots, visibility greater than 10 kilometers, and ceiling broken at 1,700 feet above ground level.
The accident is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) of Indonesia. In accordance with ICAO Annex 13, the NTSB has appointed a U.S. Accredited Representative as the State of Manufacture and Design of the airplane.
All inquiries should be directed to the NTSC at the following:
National Transportation Safety Committee Ministry of Transportation Building 3rd Floor Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur No. 5 Jakarta - INDONESIA
www.dephub.go.id/knkt knkt@dephub.go.id
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Lion Air Flight 904
- Article
- Lion Air Flight 904
- Revision
- 1366762117 · 2026-07-30 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q10903028
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA13RA074
- Event ID
- 20130413X10127
- Case number
- DCA13RA074
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Lion Air Flight 904" (page 39097813, revision 1366762117); merged with NTSB case DCA13RA074 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- 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 DCA13RA074
- 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 904" and NTSB case DCA13RA074, 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.