People lose things all the time. Keys vanish into couch cushions. Wallets disappear from pockets. One unfortunate driver once forgot where he had parked his car for several weeks. But losing an entire commercial airplane? An aircraft stretching nearly 100 feet long, standing 37 feet tall, with a wingspan of 93 feet? Air India managed to do exactly that.
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For more than a decade, a Boeing 737-200 sat quietly in a remote corner of Kolkata airport. Nobody at Air India seemed to know it existed. Nobody checked on it. Nobody asked questions about it. Meanwhile, airport authorities kept sending invoices for parking fees that piled up year after year, all while Air India insisted they had no record of any such aircraft on their books.
How does one of India’s largest airlines lose track of a massive jetliner? How does an asset worth over a million dollars simply vanish from corporate memory? And what finally brought it back to light after 13 long years of sitting forgotten on an Indian tarmac?
How Do You Lose a 100-Foot Airplane?
Understanding how VT-EHH disappeared requires tracing its complicated history through decades of corporate reshuffling. Indian Airlines originally took delivery of the Boeing 737-200 back in 1982. For years, it carried passengers across domestic routes. When Indian Airlines merged with Air India in 2007, the aircraft changed hands. Shortly after, it underwent conversion from a passenger plane into a freighter. Air India then leased the cargo jet to India Post, where it hauled mail and packages instead of people.
By 2012, its flying days were over. Air India decommissioned VT-EHH and parked it in a remote bay at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata. At that point, the aircraft should have been recorded, tracked, and eventually disposed of through proper channels.
Instead, something strange happened. Or rather, nothing happened at all. During successive restructurings, the aircraft kept getting omitted from internal records. Staff turnover meant fewer people remembered it existed. Record-keeping gaps allowed it to slip through administrative cracks. When Air India underwent privatization in 2022, with Tata Group acquiring it from the government, VT-EHH never appeared on key transfer documents. Assets missing from takeover inventories can easily be forgotten, especially once they stop generating revenue or requiring maintenance.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson later acknowledged the bizarre situation in an internal message to staff that quickly went viral. “Though disposal of an old aircraft is not unusual, this one is – for it’s an aircraft that we didn’t even know we owned until recently!” Wilson wrote. A 43-year-old jet had simply vanished from institutional memory.
Airport Officials Come Calling
While Air India forgot about VT-EHH, Kolkata airport certainly did not. Airport authorities knew exactly where the aircraft sat. They could see it occupying valuable tarmac space in a remote parking bay. And they kept doing what airport authorities do with parked aircraft. They kept billing for it.
Year after year, invoices went out to Air India. Year after year, those invoices were disputed. Air India’s position remained consistent. They had no record of any aircraft registered as VT-EHH parked at Kolkata. As far as their books were concerned, no such plane existed under their ownership.
Imagine airport officials scratching their heads. A physical Boeing 737 sat on their property. It bore Air India markings. Yet Air India kept denying any connection to it. Neither side budged for over a decade.
Finally, Kolkata airport decided to force the issue. Officials sent a formal request demanding that Air India remove the aircraft from their premises. Along with that request came 13 years of accumulated parking fees.
Faced with official pressure, Air India launched an internal audit. Teams dug through old records, traced the aircraft’s history, and followed paper trails back through mergers and restructurings. Eventually, they confirmed what airport officials had known all along. VT-EHH belonged to Air India. It had belonged to them for years. They simply forgot they owned it.
A Six-Figure Parking Bill
Losing track of a commercial jetliner proved to be an expensive oversight. Kolkata airport had continued levying standard parking fees throughout the 13 years VT-EHH occupied their tarmac. By the time Air India acknowledged ownership, those fees had accumulated to nearly Rs 10 million. In American dollars, that figure translates to roughly $110,000 to $120,000.
Air India agreed to pay its dues. After verifying ownership, they settled the parking bill and arranged for the aircraft’s removal.
Aviation analysts expressed surprise that such a situation could occur in the first place. Airlines typically maintain strict controls over their assets, especially aircraft that represent significant investments, even when grounded.
John Strickland, founder of JLS Consulting, shared his disbelief with the Indian media. “Given the regulatory oversight, it’s hard to imagine an airline genuinely losing track of an aircraft,” Strickland said. “Maintenance histories and component serial numbers are normally very tightly controlled.”
Yet VT-EHH proved that even tightly controlled industries can experience remarkable lapses. Grounded aircraft represent ongoing costs rather than revenue. They require storage fees, occasional maintenance, and administrative attention. When institutional memory fails, those costs can compound silently for years.
Industry estimates suggest the aircraft itself held negligible resale value after sitting idle for so long. However, some components remained salvageable. VT-EHH was reportedly the only retired Air India aircraft among a recent batch of disposals that still had its Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines attached. Those engines could potentially be refurbished and reused.
From Forgotten Asset to Training Tool
On November 14, 2025, VT-EHH finally left Kolkata. Workers loaded the 43-year-old aircraft onto a transport vehicle for an unusual journey. Rather than flying to its next destination, the grounded jet traveled by road. Its route covered roughly 1,174 miles from Kolkata to Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru. For reference, that distance roughly equals the crow-flies span between New York City and Miami.
VT-EHH will never carry passengers or cargo again. Instead, it will serve a new purpose as a training platform for aviation maintenance technicians. Future engineers will learn their craft by working on its aging systems and components. A jet that once crossed Indian skies now has a second life as an educational tool.
Wilson addressed the resolution with characteristic humor in his message to staff. “Over time, it was lost from memory and only came to light when our friends at Kolkata airport informed us of its presence in a (very) remote parking bay and asked us to remove it! After verifying that it was indeed ours, we’ve now done so – and in so doing removed another old cobweb from our closet.”
Kolkata airport plans to put the newly freed space to good use. Officials have earmarked the area for one of two new hangars planned at the facility.
Part of a Larger Pattern
VT-EHH’s story might seem like a one-off embarrassment, but it points to a broader issue within Indian aviation. Airport officials told Indian media outlets that VT-EHH marked the 14th defunct aircraft cleared from Kolkata airport in the past five years alone. Abandoned planes and unresolved ownership disputes apparently occur more often than passengers might expect. Enforcement gaps allow aircraft to sit idle for years while paperwork languishes in bureaucratic limbo.
For Air India specifically, the incident adds another chapter to ongoing image struggles. After the Tata Group acquired the carrier from the government, the new leadership invested heavily in modernization efforts. New aircraft orders, updated visual branding, and operational improvements all aimed to revitalize India’s most traditional airline.
Yet incidents like VT-EHH remind observers that transformation takes time. Legacy inefficiencies and organizational disarray cannot be fixed overnight. Earlier in 2025, Air India suffered a fatal accident involving one of its Boeing 787 aircraft, further complicating its efforts to recover its public image.
A forgotten Boeing 737 sitting on a tarmac for 13 years, accumulating parking tickets like an abandoned sedan, hardly inspires confidence in an airline attempting to project competence and reliability.
When Institutions Forget
VT-EHH’s strange saga raises uncomfortable questions about how large organizations track their assets. If an airline can lose a 100-foot jetliner, what else might slip through administrative cracks at major corporations? How many forgotten assets sit quietly in warehouses, storage lots, and remote facilities around the world?
Corporate mergers create chaos. Staff turnover erases institutional memory. Paperwork gets lost between departments and decades. VT-EHH sat in plain sight for 13 years while invoices went ignored and records gathered dust. It took an airport’s formal demand to prompt Air India to confront its own oversight.
For Air India, at least one cobweb has been cleared. Whether more remain hidden in dusty corners of their records, only future audits will tell.
For Air India, at least one cobweb has been cleared. Whether more remain hidden in dusty corners of their records, only future audits will tell.
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