Credit Ken Ede from the Gatwick Airport yahoogroup:
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Can't be sure I have this right but I will say what I think.
The airport records show that the flight arrived 3/10/92 ( left Jakarta on 2/10/92? ) at Gatwick as GA976, which is the normal flight number, as N202AE. The scheduled arrival time was 1035 Zulu with the actual arrival time being 1215 Zulu.
All other scheduled flights in October 1992 were operated by N203AE which I believe was in a white Garuda colour scheme. I have seen a photo of N202AE taken at Heathrow in December 1992 in full MEA colours so I would suspect that N203AE was operating the service as far as AUH and was replaced by
N202AE to Gatwick.
As this may have been a scheduled or non scheduled aircraft replacement by MEA who owned both aircraft there was no change in the flight numbers. N202AE left Gatwick as GA977 later that afternoon.
Hope this helps
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Rhys.