Flight 52 departed Bogotá at 13:10 Eastern Standard Time, five minutes ahead of schedule, on January 25, 1990. The flight landed at Medellín at 14:04 and prepared to fly the leg to JFK. At Medellín, the aircraft landed with of fuel. The flight plan filed for the journey to JFK called for of fuel required for the trip to JFK, for reserve fuel, for alternate fuel, for holding fuel, and of taxi fuel totaling minimum of block fuel. The dispatcher at Medellín ordered a total fuel load of , including of "top off" fuel to raise the aircraft weight to the maximum allowable for the planned departure runway. At Medellín, the captain and dispatcher decided to use another runway and requested an additional of fuel.