A staggering lapse in asset management has seen Air India ‘rediscover’ a Boeing 737-200 that had been effectively lost for 13 years. The 43-year-old aircraft, registered as VT-EHH, was discovered sitting idle at Kolkata Airport after completely vanishing from the airline’s records. The surprise reunion came with a hefty price tag: a bill for nearly 1 crore rupees from the airport for parking charges.
This particular Boeing 737 began its service in 1982 with Indian Airlines. It later served Alliance Air from 1998 and was converted for cargo operations with India Post in 2007 before its final retirement in 2012. Instead of a formal retirement process, the aircraft was left on a remote part of the tarmac and subsequently dropped off Air India’s fixed-asset ledgers.
In an internal memo, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson acknowledged the airline’s complete ignorance of the aircraft’s status until Kolkata airport officials raised the issue. The ramifications of this oversight were substantial, affecting depreciation schedules, insurance, maintenance forecasts, and financial registers. Crucially, the aircraft was not included in the valuation during the Tata Group’s takeover due to its absence from company records.
Adding to its unique story, the forgotten jet was the only one among ten retired Air India aircraft that still had its Pratt & Whitney engines intact. Over its 13-year stay, the airport managed to recover about 1 crore rupees in parking fees. The aircraft has now been transported to Bengaluru, where it will be utilized for training maintenance engineers. This incident highlights critical gaps in asset management within large, historically complex organizations.