Indian Airlines found its plane after 13 years of being lost

The Boeing 737-200 bearing registration number VT-EHH was recovered by Air India after Kolkata airport, West Bengal state, India, contacted and requested the airline to relocate. Telegraph reported on December 17. The airline also had to pay 10 million rupees (more than 110,000 USD) in parking fees for the 13 years of the plane.

The incident caused an uproar in Indian public opinion as many people wondered “how could an entire plane be forgotten?”.

According to global observers, in the aviation industry, it is rare for a passenger plane to lie on the ground for a long time. Due to high investment costs and continuous operation requirements, aircraft are usually only stopped when needing maintenance, conversion or liquidation. Airplanes left idle for long periods of time not only cause waste but also pose potential technical risks.

An aircraft that almost “disappears” from the management system like the case of Air India is considered unusual.

Each aircraft is attached to a strict system of records, paperwork and maintenance data, which is periodically updated to meet flight safety requirements. Independent aviation consultant John Strickland said that with current levels of surveillance, it would be difficult for an airline to lose a plane.

However, the case of the Boeing 737-200 is said to involve a complicated ownership history. The plane originally belonged to Indian Airlines, a state-owned airline that merged into Air India in 2007. After that, the plane was leased to serve India Post and converted into a cargo plane.

According to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson, the plane was taken out of service years ago while serving India Post, but was “somehow” omitted from regulatory records. When the airline was privatized, the plane did not appear in the books, leaving the new management unaware that it still owned this asset.

Trinidade Gois, who has followed Indian aviation history for more than 30 years, posted a picture of the plane and said its ownership “seems to have been forgotten for many years”. He photographed this Boeing at Kolkata airport in 2019, before the incident was widely publicized.

The incident took place in the context of Air India continuously facing difficulties. In June 2025, an airline plane traveling to London, England crashed in Ahmedabad, killing 260 people. After that, Air India stopped operating three Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners to serve the expanded investigation.

Currently, Air India has not officially commented on the incident of the Boeing 737 being abandoned for more than a decade.