Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 was a scheduled domestic flight operated by Garuda Indonesia from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta to Polonia International Airport, Medan in Indonesia. On 26 September 1997, the aircraft flying the route crashed into mountainous woodlands near the village of Buah Nabar, Sibolangit, killing all 222 passengers and 12 crew on board. It is the deadliest aviation disaster in Indonesia's history.

Garuda Indonesia is the flag carrier of Indonesia, headquartered at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport. A successor of KLM Interinsulair Bedrijf, it is a member of SkyTeam and the second-largest airline of Indonesia after Lion Air, operating scheduled flights to a number of destinations across Asia, Europe, and Australia from its hubs, focus cities, as well as other cities for Hajj. It is the only Indonesian airline that flies to the European airspace.

At its peak from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, Garuda operated an extensive network of flights all over the world, with regularly scheduled services to Adelaide, Cairo, Fukuoka, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome and other cities in Europe, Australia and Asia. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a series of financial and operational difficulties hit the airline hard, causing it to drastically cut back services. In 2009, the airline undertook a five-year modernization plan known as the Quantum Leap, which overhauled the airline's brand, livery, logo and uniforms, as well as newer, more modern fleet and facilities and a renewed focus on international markets, and earning the airline awards such as Most Improved Airline, 5-Star Airline, and World's Best Cabin Crew by Skytrax.

The airline also operated a budget subsidiary, Citilink, which provided low-cost flights to multiple Indonesian destinations and was spun-off in 2012. In November 2018, the airline took over operations as well as financial management of Sriwijaya Air by a cooperation agreement (KSO). This partnership expired in December 2019.