Air India ghost plane: No one can imagine that an old plane could remain parked at the airport for 13 years and no one would notice it. But the same thing happened with Air India. The Boeing 737-200, built in 1982, stood in a corner of Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport for years and no one knew which company’s asset it was. The airport staff even started calling it a ghost plane. By the time this plane was found, a parking bill of about Rs 1 crore had been raised.
A few days ago, this matter came to light when this old aircraft (VT-EHH) was loaded on a heavy trailer and sent from Kolkata to Bengaluru on 14 November 2025. This road journey of 1900 kilometers was no less than a film scene. This plane has reached Bengaluru, but now it will not be used for flying, but for training technical students. Similarly, in the last five years, 14 such retired aircraft have been removed from Kolkata Airport to make space for new hangars and other necessary facilities.
What is the story of the lost plane?
The story of this aircraft starts from 1982, when it was given to Indian Airlines from Boeing. This model of the “Baby Boeing” family was considered the backbone of domestic flights at that time. In 1998 it went to Alliance Air, then in 2007 it came back to Indian Airlines and later to Air India. For some time it also flew cargo flights for India Post. The last flights took place in 2012 and in the same year it was parked in a corner of Kolkata Airport. After this, the situation became such that this ship gradually disappeared from both papers and memories.
Air India’s years-long financial crisis, staff turnover and the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India in 2007 had thrown the record-keeping process into disarray. This was the reason why this aircraft was not visible in any list, any register, any file. Finally, when the airport administration ordered the removal of all the abandoned aircraft by 2025, Air India first said that this was not their aircraft. But when the numbers and old records were investigated in depth, it was found that this plane actually belonged to Air India.
How much was the parking fee of the plane every month?
After this the airport administration handed over the bill for 13 years, which was about Rs 1 crore. According to the parking fee of Rs 6000–7000 every month, this amount kept increasing continuously and there was no one to ask. The airport operational team associated with Adani Enterprises also recovered this amount.
The most surprising thing in this whole matter is that in comparison to other old planes, the engines of this plane were still installed. Usually, such aircraft are used by removing their parts before they become scrap, but VT-EHH was probably caught somewhere between the cargo usage of India Post and the changing administrative circumstances.
When this matter came to the media, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson accepted and gave a statement. He said, we didn’t even know it was ours. This may sound like a joke, but it highlights the deep problems of Air India’s past.
long journey on trailer
On November 14, when the plane was leaving on a trailer in the foggy morning, its pictures and videos went viral on social media. People even started calling it “flying truck”. This journey passed through West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and continued to attract people’s attention everywhere. Now this aircraft will become a practical lab for technical students in Bengaluru, where they will be able to learn to work on a real aircraft.
Now only two old ATR aircraft are left at Kolkata Airport, which were left by Alliance Air. Airport Director Rajeev Sharma says that the vacated space will further strengthen the services of airlines like IndiGo and SpiceJet, as Kolkata is moving towards the target of 2.5 crore passengers in the coming years.
