- We’re not sure if we’d be more or less comfortable traveling on a fully conscious airplane.
A skilled pilot goes a long way toward guaranteeing a safe flight. With intricate knowledge of the machine they’re flying, the pilot can control every aspect of the plane.
But what if the plane simply said, “No.”
That’s what Deli Mike did. Over its two-decade service life, the Turkish Airlines Airbus A340-300 airliner developed a bizarre reputation.
The airplane simply seemed to have a mind of its own.
For virtually its entire existence, Deli Mike suffered from constant mechanical issues and faults. One of the plane’s favorite tricks was to flash its lights at seemingly random and then stop immediately as soon as someone tried to fix the problem.
That was just one of its quirks, though, and Deli Mike became notorious among maintenance staff. Yet, its multiple problems never actually put anyone in real danger.
The seemingly sentient plane was just an incorrigible prankster. Let’s take a look at Deli Mike’s strange story.
A Fitting Name
Deli Mike’s life begins in a fairly boring fashion. In the late 1980s, Turkish Airlines wanted to expand its operations to North America and East Asia.
For that, the flight operator needed more passenger jets. When looking into suitable options, the company determined there were two potential candidates — the Airbus A340 and the McDonnell Douglas MD-11.
Airbus won out in the end. Turkish Airlines ordered five A340-300 aircraft in 1990 and they were delivered in 1996.
One of those five planes had the registration number TC-JDM. Upon delivery, the plane was dubbed Izmir after a city on Turkey’s western coast.
However, it didn’t take long until TC-JDM received another nickname — Deli Mike. That name has nothing to do with selling pre-prepared sandwiches and sliced meats.
In Turkish, “dely” means “crazy.” In essence, Turkish Airlines mechanics started calling the airplane “Crazy Mike” after the last two letters of its registration code.
The machine definitely earned that name.
So Many Tricks
Deli Mike started behaving erratically almost as soon as it entered service. Throughout its career, the plane was constantly plagued by outlandish mechanical issues that had seemingly no reason.
One of the more common issues was that the emergency exit lights would turn on one by one. The light pattern would travel down the aisle like a stadium wave going across a crowd of football fans.
This issue was a good sign, though. According to people who got to know Deli Mike, the light wave indicated it was in “a good mood.”
Another trick the plane liked to play was suddenly turning on its external lights. As soon as a staff member went to investigate, Deli Mike would turn the lights off.
If it could, we’re sure it would’ve said, “Gotcha,” followed by a mocking chuckle.
Some of the plane’s pranks were more malicious. Once, it sounded the master alarm signal in the cockpit, sending an inexperienced cabin crew member into a panic until the rest of the crew convinced them that it was just one of Mike’s tricks.
The plane loved annoying the passengers, as well. When a passenger pressed the reading light switch, Mike would often turn on the light — above another passenger. It would repeat this same thing with the button to call a flight attendant.
Yet, there were some people who could get the mischievous plane to fly right. A famous story tells of a mechanic who went to fix a faulty flight instrument.
Instead of breaking out his tools, the mechanic knocked on the instrument’s casing and asked Mike, “What happened to you, big man?” And just like that, the issue corrected itself.
Clearly, the plane was just pretending.
Where Is Mike Now?
Despite the ongoing issues, Deli Mike never hurt anybody. The plane did have one incident in September 2011 where it ran off the runway, but no one got injured.
In May 2016, Turkish Airlines pulled Mike from scheduled flights and transferred it to charter flight duty to carry pilgrims to Mecca during Hajj. The plane served in this role until October 2018.
By that point, Mike had started experiencing more serious issues, such as the landing gear not retracting after takeoff. Consequently, Mike left the Turkish Airlines fleet in January 2019.
That wasn’t the end of Mike’s story. The plane changed owners several times until it was finally sold to Africa Charter Airline.
In December 2022, Deli Mike flew once more, heading from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Uzbekistan with three other Airbus 340s. However, all of the planes experienced an emergency mid-flight and had to land in Tehran, Iran.
Had Deli Mike taught its bad habits to the other planes? Not really. Mike was transferred to the ownership of Mahan Air shortly afterward and the whole “emergency” has been accused of being a way to skirt international sanctions and deliver airplanes to Iran.
So, as far as we know, Deli Mike is now in Iran. We’ll see how well they deal with Mike’s pranks.