Deli Mike

Deli Mike or Deli Mayk (lit. 'Crazy Mike') is a nickname given to an Airbus A340-300 previously operated by Turkish Airlines with civil registration TC-JDM. The aircraft joined the Turkish Airlines fleet in 1996 to replace the McDonnell Douglas DC-10s of the airline and was used to operate long-haul flights out of Turkey. During its operation, Deli Mike had a record of having minor and strange technical failures such as its lights illuminating differently. This unreliability gave the aircraft its nickname, which is a wordplay on the ICAO spelling alphabet. In its late use, the aircraft operated both long-haul and short-haul flights. It was re-configured in 2016 to only have economy class seats and was solely used to carry pilgrims to Hajj. 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. After being stored at Johannesburg for almost 4 years, the aircraft was flown to Mehrabad International Airport in December 2022. 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. The aircraft commenced operations with the airline in March 2024 as EP-MJC.