Since its inception, there have been to date five different variants of the Boeing 747. Each variant improved on the previous specification, so that the latest version is around twenty feet longer and wider, 50,000lb heavier and has sone and-a-half times the range of the original 747-100. Boeing 747 D-ABYM was a second generation aircraft, a Boeing 747-200, one of thirty-two aircraft delivered by Boeing to the airlines in 1978.

The 747-200 itself was available in differing specifications, notably in the engine configuration. The aircraft carried either Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines, Rolls Royce RB211 engines, or the General Electric CF6-50E2 engines as fitted to D-ABYM. The CF6-50E2 engines as fitted to D-ABYM had the lowest thrust output of the three available engine configurations.