"Nijmegen" was scheduled to fly from its home base at Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam at 8:00 p.m. CET to New York via Prestwick, with Shannon Airport in Ireland as the alternative stopover point in case of bad weather at Prestwick. The aircraft carried sufficient fuel to divert to Shannon and then back to Schiphol, if necessary. The plane's departure was delayed as additional cargo was loaded for transport to Iceland, which would be an additional stop en route from Prestwick to New York.