January 2007, at around 13:00 local time (06:00 UTC), the plane departed from Juanda Airport, Surabaya, with 96 passengers (85 adults, 7 children and 4 infants), a 56 percent load factor, and 6 crew on board. The passenger list was composed mainly of Indonesian nationals and majority of passengers were returning to Manado after New Year's Day; the foreigners were an American family of three and a German passenger. The two-hour flight, scheduled to arrive at Sam Ratulangi Airport, Manado, at 16:00 local time, was as expected until the plane vanished from air traffic control radar screens at Makassar, South Sulawesi, with the final contact at around 15:00 local time. The last known beacon position was detected by a Singaporean satellite. The altitude of the plane was shown as on the radar screen. Weather in the region was stormy; the Indonesian Bureau of Meteorology and Geophysics noted that the cloud thickness was up to in height and wind speed at an average of in the area. Although the Juanda Airport operator, PT Angkasa Pura I, had given warnings to the pilot concerning the weather condition, the plane had departed as scheduled. The plane ran into crosswinds of more than over the Makassar Strait, west of Sulawesi, where it changed course eastward toward land before losing contact. Problems started when the pilots noticed an anomaly in the inertial reference system (IRS). The first officer then attempted to troubleshoot, resetting his IRS unit by switching the knob on his side to ATT mode; this blanked out his attitude indicator, effectively making it the captain's responsibility to fly the plane straight and level for 30 seconds as the realignment process is completed. The captain does not do this. As a result of his fixation on the faulty IRS, he does not fly the aircraft, and previous maintenance issues involving the aircraft's ailerons cause the airplane to gradually roll slowly to the right. When the aircraft reaches 35 degrees right bank, and increasing, a "bank angle" audible warning sounds in the cockpit. In a panic, Captain Widodo tells the First Officer to switch the IRS mode back to NAV, to hopefully reverse the situation they got themselves into. Now that the first officer's attitude indicator had returned to its normal state, First Officer Susanto could see that the aircraft was in a dangerous position, and attempted to notify the captain. When this failed, he