SINGAPORE: An airline finally found a plane that went missing 13 years ago, but the bad news is, it has to pay a hefty fine.
Air India admitted that it misplaced the Boeing 737-200 in Kolkata Airport in 2012.
The jet seemed to disappear from the company’s records – and executives’ minds – until the airport contacted Air India in November requesting the removal of the narrow-body aircraft.
The airline was also slapped with a parking fine of nearly 10 million rupees (US$111,000), which it paid.
Initially, Air India reportedly denied ownership of the plane, news reports say, but an internal audit confirmed that the 30m-long aircraft belonged to them.
In an internal note, the airline’s chief executive Campbell Wilson admitted Air India had no record of the jet’s existence until they were contacted by the airport.
“Disposal of an old aircraft is not unusual,” Wilson was reported by the Times of India as saying in the note. “This one is – because we didn’t even know we owned it.”
Air India officials say staff turnover and record-keeping gaps over the years meant the jet slipped out of the airline’s official documentation.
The Boeing aircraft was originally registered with Indian Airlines in 1982 before being transferred to Air India following a merger in 2007.
It was then leased to the Indian postal service and converted into a cargo aircraft before it was deregistered in 2012.
The idle 43-year-old plane has been transported to Bengaluru where it will be used to train aircraft maintenance crew.
The removal of the aircraft marked the 14th abandoned plane cleared from a remote area of the Kolkata Airport in five years.
Two more aircraft remained unclaimed – twin-engine turboprops formerly operated by domestic carrier Alliance Air. - The Straits Times/ANN
