A 43-year-old Boeing 737, long out of service, was found lying unused and rusting at Kolkata Airport for 13 years. The aircraft, registered as VT-EHH, seems to have been forgotten in official records, leaving behind a parking bill of nearly ₹1 crore.

The plane was decommissioned in 2012 but remained abandoned on a taxiway at the airport. It was finally removed on November 14 and shifted to Bengaluru, where it will now be used to train aircraft maintenance engineers.

VT-EHH began flying in 1982. It first served Indian Airlines and later moved to Alliance Air on lease in 1998. In 2007, it returned to cargo operations and became part of Air India after the merger with Indian Airlines.

From there, it served India Post until it was retired in 2012. After that, the aircraft slipped out of active records and remained unnoticed for over a decade.

Air India’s CEO, Campbell Wilson, admitted the organisation had no memory of this aircraft. In an internal memo, he said, “Disposal of an old aircraft is not unusual.” But in this case, there was no record of it.

The situation is being linked to long-standing bureaucracy and confusion created during major organisational changes. When Air India and Indian Airlines merged in 2007, all assets were combined under the National Aviation Company of India Limited (later renamed Air India). During these transitions, and later during the Tata Group’s takeover in 2022, VT-EHH appears to have been forgotten.

Kolkata Airport has been trying to clear out old aircraft taking up space. Over the last five years, it has removed 14 such “ownerless” or abandoned planes to free up parking space.

VT-EHH’s removal is part of this effort, helping the airport recover valuable tarmac area that had unintentionally turned into a resting place for decommissioned jets.