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A preserved Turkish Airlines Airbus A340 was destroyed this weekend after catching fire at a museum in Turkey. The widebody quadjet had served the Turkish flag carrier and Star Alliance member for almost 21 years before its withdrawal from service in the mid-2010s, after which it was dismantled for preservation. Now, however, its story has come to an unfortunate fiery end, albeit with no one injured.
The fire is thought to have been of an electrical nature, with the damage ending up being so extensive that the rear of the jet’s fuselage collapsed. It has now been extinguished, with an investigation underway in order for the relevant authorities to be able to get to the bottom of what caused the fire on the Airbus A340. The jet was registered as TC-JDL, and was one of nine A340s at Turkish Airlines.
A Fiery Demise For The Preserved Quadjet
According to reporting on the matter by Mig Flug, the fire broke out at around 3:00 PM on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at the UçakPark Science Center in Çayırova, Turkey. Coverage by aeroTELEGRAPH notes that footage of the blaze that has emerged online in the aftermath of the fire shows that the tail and rear fuselage of the A340 ended up giving way and falling to the ground due to the damage.
This was a particularly alarming moment, given that a fire appliance was situated underneath the tail at the time of its collapse. While the exact cause of the blaze has yet to be determined, early reporting by Planespotters.net asserts that the fire was of an electrical nature and that it started in the cabin of the retired widebody quadjet. Mig Flug quotes the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality as saying on the matter:
“That there was no loss of life or injury in the incident is our greatest consolation. An examination and investigation [have] been launched to determine the cause of the fire.“
The Life & Times Of TC-JDL
TC-JDL has been a loyal servant for 
Turkish Airlines, with Planespotters.net noting that it spent its entire flying career at the Turkish flag carrier and Star Alliance member under this registration. Bearing the Manufacturer’s Serial Number 057, it was delivered to the airline back in July of 1994. From then until April of 2013, in addition to its registration, it also bore the name Ankara after the Turkish capital city.
Thereafter, it was renamed after the Turkish town of Malazgirt. As seen in the photo above, it also wore a special Star Alliance livery to commemorate Turkish Airlines’ membership of the group. This rare paint scheme was first applied back in March of 2008, and it retained it until its withdrawal. This came in March of 2015, at which point the two-class, 270-seat jet was stored at Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW).
The aircraft remained at Istanbul’s secondary air hub for more than a year before being dismantled for preservation in September of 2016. The purpose of this was to transport the jet by road to be displayed in a museum two years later, earning it a second lease of life and escaping the scrapyard. aeroTELEGRAPH notes that 14 trucks were used to transport the jet’s components to Çayırova for reassembly.
A Brief History Of Turkish Airlines’ Airbus A340 Fleet
TC-JDL was one of nine units of the A340-300 that served Turkish Airlines in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. According to Planespotters.net, the first seven arrived brand-new between July of 1993 (TC-JDJ) and April of 2000 (TC-JII), with the final two arriving on lease in 2008 (TC-JIK in September and TC-JIJ in November). By 2012, the leased jets had gone, with the last ‘lifers’ leaving in 2019 for Avro Global.
One of the three 2019 departures had a particularly interesting backstory. Registered as TC-JDM, this one-class 354-seat example was nicknamed ‘Deli Mike’ as a play on words alluding to both the phonetic alphabet letters for the end of its registration and the fact that Deli means ‘crazy’ in Turkish. The reason for this was the fact that it was particularly incident-prone and had various maintenance issues!
