Air India rediscovered a 'lost' Boeing 737 after 13 years at Kolkata airport
The carrier says a Boeing 737-200 grounded in 2012 was forgotten amid corporate changes, with a parking bill mounting as ownership records went missing.
Air India has recovered a Boeing 737-200 that disappeared from the carrier's assets more than a decade ago, after the jet was found abandoned at Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in 2012. The airline said the aircraft, registered VT-EHH, had been grounded in Kolkata for 13 years and is now undergoing disposition, with a parking bill reported to total about £85,000 for the period it occupied a spot at the airport.
Air India's management traced the aircraft's history to earlier corporate arrangements, noting that the plane was originally delivered to Indian Airlines, a state-owned carrier that merged with Air India in 2007. It later moved to Alliance Air and was converted for freighter use under India Post, operating as a cargo aircraft for many years. Air India has said the aircraft was decommissioned years ago to serve India Post, and that it was omitted from several official records, leading to the surprising discovery many years later.
The plane's ownership and custody appear to have drifted amid corporate reorganizations and fleet changes. A photo circulating on social media shows the jet and includes a claim that Air India completed the sale and transfer of VT-EHH last week after it had been grounded at CCU since 2012. The post, credited to aviation-history observer Trinidade Gois, notes that the aircraft was delivered to Indian Airlines in 1982, later moving to Alliance Air before becoming a freighter for India Post, with ownership reportedly forgotten for years.
The context for the discovery comes as Air India has faced other major incidents in 2025. In June, a London-bound Air India passenger flight crashed in Ahmedabad, killing 260 people. In November, Air India grounded three Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners for what the carrier described as extensive investigations following the earlier incidents. The Daily Mail, which first reported on the Kolkata find, said it had approached Air India for comment.
Experts say the episode underscores how aircraft that change hands between carriers or government services can fall through the cracks of paperwork, especially when decommissioning and reallocation occur across reorganized entities. Air India has not disclosed a formal timeline for what happens next with VT-EHH, only that the aircraft was found, assessed, and moved toward disposition after years of inactivity.