Deli Mike was removed from the Turkish Airlines fleet in early 2019 and was flown to O. R. Tambo International Airport later that year and re-registered as 2-AVRA.

The aircraft was allegedly acquired by a Burkinabe subsidiary of Iranian carrier Mahan Air in order to evade sanctions placed on the airline and country.

TC-JDM, with serial number 115, rolled out of the production line on 27 February 1996 and joined the fleet of Turkish Airlines in April, becoming the fourth A340 to do so.

[4] Occasionally, the lights of the emergency exits would turn on one by one from front to back "like a Mexican wave", not all at the same time, which according to the cabin crew meant that Deli Mike "was in a good mood".

On one occasion, the aircraft started sounding the master caution alarm in the cockpit, causing one of the inexperienced cabin crew members to panic.

One popular story among technical staff states that a senior employee fixed the faulty flight instruments of the aircraft simply by patting its door and saying "what happened to you big man?

[9] During the winter period of 2016, a heavy downfall in traffic caused the airline to temporarily ground dozens of aircraft, including Deli Mike.

[10] In August 2017, Hürriyet reported that Turkish Airlines expected to maintain its Airbus A340 aircraft and use them for the Hajj flights until 2021 "thanks to good maintenance".

[11] While criticizing Turkish Airlines in February 2018 for ordering new aircraft while many others were grounded in the meantime, Bora Erdin of pro-opposition newspaper Sözcü also added that the airline made "no clarification as to why the problematic plane [Deli Mike] was used persistently while unproblematic ones were on the ground" and highlighted the frequent issue of the landing gear not retracting after takeoff, causing the aircraft to return to the origin airport.

[b] Shortly after it was alleged that the operation was carried out to evade sanctions placed on Iran, the Civil Aviation Organization confirmed the purchase of four Airbus A340 aircraft.