Air India Sells Forgotten ‘Baby Boeing’ 737-200 Hidden for Over a Decade

In what might be one of the strangest tales in aviation history, Air India has stumbled upon a long-forgotten relic of its past—a 43-year-old Boeing 737-200 that had been sitting quietly at Kolkata Airport for over a decade, completely off the airline’s radar.

It’s not every day that a whole aircraft “goes missing” in plain sight, but this jet’s story reads like a mystery novel.

The Forgotten Jet

The aircraft, registered VT-EHH, was delivered in 1982 and originally flew for Indian Airlines, serving domestic routes before later being used to carry mail. By 2012, it had been grounded and parked in a remote corner of Kolkata Airport.

Over the years, as Indian Airlines merged into Air India and the airline went through ownership changes, restructuring, and administrative reshuffles, the jet quietly disappeared from all internal records, asset lists, and insurance files.

For 13 years, the Boeing 737 existed physically but not administratively. Only the airport staff knew it was there, watching it sit untouched day after day, hidden in plain sight.

Discovery Sparks Investigation

The mystery came to light when Kolkata Airport authorities requested Air India to remove the abandoned aircraft. Upon checking records, the airline realized it had never officially written off or sold the plane. It had simply been forgotten.

Following the revelation, Air India launched a wider audit to ensure no other aircraft or equipment had been lost in the shuffle of its complex past. The airline has since sold the 737, bringing this unusual story to a quiet close.

The Baby Boeing: A Storied Career

Affectionately known as the “Baby Boeing,” the 737-200 is a stretched variant of the early 737 family, measuring 100 feet 2 inches (30.53 meters) in length. Over the decades, it was a reliable workhorse for domestic travel and cargo operations, even being configured for India Post deliveries.

However, the model also has a tragic history in India. Notably:

• In April 1993, an Indian Airlines 737-200 crashed in Aurangabad, killing 55 people after hitting a truck near the runway.
• In July 2000, an Alliance Air 737-200 crashed in Patna, claiming over 50 lives along with fatalities on the ground.

The Cost of Forgetting

Kolkata Airport recovered nearly ₹1 crore in parking fees from Air India for the aircraft’s 13-year stay.

While this particular jet has been transferred to Bangalore International Airport Ltd for engineering training, other retired aircraft have found unusual second lives. Some fuselages have been purchased by private firms and converted into aviation-themed restaurants, blending nostalgia with innovation.

Among the aircraft removed from Kolkata were historically significant planes, including a Douglas DC-3 Dakota, once flown by former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik during his famous 1947 mission to rescue Indonesian leaders from Dutch forces. That aircraft has since been restored and displayed at Bhubaneswar Airport.

Only two defunct ATR aircraft from Alliance Air remain at Kolkata, quietly waiting for their next chapter.

A Jet Lost in Time

The story of VT-EHH is a reminder of how even entire aircraft can slip through the cracks of bureaucracy and administrative oversight. For Air India, it was both a mystery and a lesson in fleet management—a decades-old plane, rediscovered and repurposed, proving that in aviation, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.