Air India acknowledged that it lost track of a Boeing 737-200 cargo aircraft for 13 years until it was located last month in a remote parking bay at Kolkata airport, the Independent reported in December.
The jet, parked in 2012 and later decommissioned, slipped off company records amid successive restructurings, the airline said, according to the Independent and an internal message by CEO Campbell Wilson.
Airport authorities had continued invoicing parking fees over the years, but Air India disputed the bills because it had no record of the aircraft registered as VT-EHH being parked there.
The oversight came to light only after Kolkata airport formally asked the airline to remove the aircraft, prompting a verification that confirmed it was Air India’s.
In an internal note to staff that has been widely reported, Wilson wrote that disposing of old aircraft is routine, but “it’s an aircraft that we didn’t even know we owned until recently.” He added that the plane “was lost from memory” and was discovered when the airport notified the airline of its presence in a remote bay and requested its removal.
Wilson said the aircraft had been repeatedly omitted from internal records, including during Air India’s 2022 privatization, so it never appeared on key transfer documents, as reported by Tribune India. The airline has since removed the jet, which had been converted for freight use and previously leased to India Post.
Airlines are usually vigilant about tracking planes
John Strickland of JLS Consulting told the Telegraph that it is difficult to imagine an airline losing track of an aircraft, noting that maintenance histories and component serial numbers are tightly controlled.
Air India said the jet’s disappearance from records stemmed from organizational changes following the 2007 merger of Indian Airlines into Air India and subsequent restructurings. The aircraft has now been removed from Kolkata airport after the ownership was confirmed.
“This one is an aircraft that we didn’t even know we owned until recently,” Wilson wrote, adding that removing it helped clear “another old cobweb from our closet.”