On 23 November, a Dakota transport plane carrying 20 troops of the 2nd Battalion, 19th Hyderabad Regiment crashed near the then-town of Bekasi (pop. around 10,000), east of Jakarta. The passengers and crew of the aircraft initially survived the crash, but when British recovery forces of the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry reached the crash site the day after, they found the aircraft burned out and only one mutilated body of an Indian passenger.[7][6] British forces commander in Jakarta Philip Christison would issue an ultimatum demanding the return of the passengers and crew to Jakarta within 24 hours.[8]
According to the accounts of Indonesian general Abdul Haris Nasution, there were 26 passengers and crew of the Dakota aircraft. They were surrounded by curious onlookers from surrounding villages, and fired warning shots, causing the locals to mob and capture them. The survivors were then handed over to a local militia, who transferred them over to the local TKR. Nasution stated that the survivors were executed during transit without any orders from TKR.[6] The murders were attributed to members of the Barisan Banteng Hitam, on 26 or 27 November.
In another recovery attempt in 29 November, a larger group of British forces departed for Bekasi on 29 November, mainly troops of the 16th Punjab Regiment supported by tanks. They were resisted by the Hizbullah militia of around 100 men led by Noer Alie, supported by some elements of the TKR in Bekasi. Some of the militiamen were armed with rifles, others carrying swords (golok) and sharpened bamboo.[9] In an engagement at the Sasak Kapuk Bridge, 30 militiamen were killed, 20 wounded, and 15 were captured. The British casualties was a single Indian soldier wounded.[7][10]
Upon reaching Bekasi (Indonesian accounts noted that the British arrived in Bekasi on another attempt in 9 or 10 December),[6][10] the column engaged with the Barisan Banteng Hitam, which “made a stand but all were killed”. Bodies of the Dakota’s passengers and crew would be discovered buried by a river after the search party was tipped off by a released Ambonese prisoner.[7] Around 200 houses in villages near the crash site were also burned down by British forces.
