An airline has admitted to have ‘rediscovered’ a Boeing 737 that disappeared over a decade ago.
Air India says it misplaced one of its aircraft in Kolkata Airport back in 2012.
The passenger jet, a Boeing 737-200, remained abandoned for a total of 13 years, and has only just been reclaimed after Kolkata Airport contacted Air India to request the jet be removed, according to reports.
The airline has also been hit with a £85,000 parking bill – the grand total of what it owes for its ‘parking’ spot over this time period.
The plane was originally registered to Indian Airlines, a different state-owned airline that merged with Air India in 2007.
The Boeing was then rented to the Indian postal service to operate as a cargo plane.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson reportedly said the plane had been decommissioned years ago to operate for India Post – and was somehow omitted from many official documents.
This means that the new company would not even be aware it owned this plane – hence why it might have been forgotten.
One X user, Trinidade Gois, posted a photo of the jet, saying: ‘Last week Air India completed the sale and transfer of this B737-200 (VT-EHH) that had been grounded at CCU since 2012.
Pictured: The Boeing 737 that was abandoned in Kolkata Airport for over a decade
‘Delivered to Indian Airlines in 1982, then on to “Alliance Air”, until it was converted into a freighter and flew with “India Post” titles.’
He added: ‘Apparently, the aircraft’s ownership lay forgotten for years.’
Trinidade Gois has been following Indian Aviation history for three decades and knew of the history of the aircraft when he took the picture in 2019. When the aircraft made news, he dug up the set of photos from a previous trip of his to Kolkota.
It comes after a London-bound Air India passenger plane crashed in Ahmedabad and killed 260 people in June 2025.
In November, Air India grounded three Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners for ‘extensive investigations’ after the crash earlier this year.
The Daily Mail has contacted Air India for comment.
