sempati air (iata code: sg; icao code: ssr; call sign: spirow) was founded in december 1968 by pt.tri utama bhakti (pt.truba) under the name pt sempati air transport and began flights in march of the following year using douglas dc-3 aircraft. in the beginning, the airline did not offer regularly scheduled services; instead it offered transportation for oil company workers, but soon thereafter more dc-3s were purchased and the airline received a number of fokker f27s, and regularly scheduled flights to singapore, kuala lumpur and manila were begun. the name sempati was taken from sampati, a mythical bird in hindu mythology. in its early days, sempati were referred by some people as "sembilan panglima tinggi" (nine senior commanders) the indonesian army strategic reserve command was also involved in its operations.