On 30th December 2019 at about 20:46 h, an Airbus A330-343 aircraft with nationality and registration marks TC-LOL operated by Turkish Airlines Inc. departed Istanbul Airport (LTFM), Istanbul; Turkey for Port Harcourt International Airport (DNPO), Rivers State; Nigeria, as a scheduled flight THY3WJ operating on Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight plan. The flight had 295 persons on board including 11 crew members. The Captain was the Pilot Flying (PF), while the Co-Pilot was the Pilot Monitoring (PM).
According to the crew statements, the flight was delayed for two hours before departure. The crew added that at the time of initial contact with Port Harcourt Approach (APP), they noticed that the Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS), was off the air.