43-year-old Boeing plane vanished from official records in 2012, rediscovered after 13 years
An Air India aircraft that vanished from the company’s official records has finally been rediscovered — 13 years after it was abandoned in a forgotten corner of Kolkata Airport.
The plane, a 43-year-old Boeing 737, was found only after airport authorities contacted Air India on 22 Nov to request the removal of the long-idle jet, Aviation A2Z reported.
Source: Aviation A2Z
Boeing 737 flew for three airlines before being abandoned in 2012
The aircraft, registered VT-EHH, was a Boeing 737-2A8F from the “Baby Boeing” family.
It began service in 1982 with Indian Airlines, later flew under Alliance Air, and was eventually converted into a freighter by Air India in 2007.
It was then contracted to India Post before finally being grounded at Kolkata Airport in 2012.
Instead of being sold, scrapped or recorded correctly, the plane was simply left in a remote corner of the airfield and astonishingly vanished from Air India’s asset documents.
Source: Aviation A2Z
Plane to be converted to themed restaurant
When the airport asked Air India to remove the derelict aircraft, the request triggered an internal document review.
The airline then discovered that the jet had been omitted from its records for years, meaning it had not factored into budgets, maintenance planning, or asset management.
According to Aviation A2Z, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson told staff that VT-EHH had repeatedly been left out of internal documentation before the airline’s privatisation, resulting in the aircraft effectively being “forgotten”.
Source: Air India
After retirement, the aircraft was reportedly moved from Kolkata to Delhi, and then to Rajasthan, where it is set to be repurposed as a themed restaurant.
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Featured image adapted from Aviation A2Z and Wikipedia.
