It takes a lot to shock commuters in Delhi – crawling peak hour traffic, road rage, incessant honking – they've seen it all. But on Saturday night, they were greeted by an unusual sight – a limbless airplane stuck under a bridge. Pretty soon, the video of the plane that had Air India written on it started doing the rounds. But what happened exactly? Let's find out.
A320 gets stuck in the middle of the road
The unusual incident took place on the Delhi-Gurugram highway close to Delhi's IGI Airport. By Sunday morning, video of the Air India A320 fuselage stuck under the foot overbridge had gone viral. With no wings or the tail section, the A320 fuselage stood on one side of the road, perplexing commuters.
The video created enough buzz for Air India to clarify its position. According to the Times of India, the airline's spokesperson issued a statement,
“This is an old, scrapped aircraft which has already been sold off by us. There is no additional information as it involves the person to whom it has been sold off.â€
A Delhi airport official also reacted to the video, saying,
“The aircraft certainly does not belong to the Delhi airport’s fleet... it is being transported without any wings. It appears to be a scrapped plane and the driver may have made a judgement of error while transporting it.â€
The first half of the aircraft frame had cleared the bridge, but midway, the top of the fuselage scraped the foot overbridge right above it and got stuck.
The video brought back memories of 2019 when an old Boeing 737-200, which flew for India Post, got stuck under a bridge in a similar fashion in the state of West Bengal. Leased from former Indian Airlines, the 737 fuselage created a traffic jam and attracted a massive crowd of curious onlookers.
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Interesting fates of other Air India planes
Like most airlines worldwide, Air India also sends off its retired planes for regular scrapping and dismantling. However, there have been some exceptions. In 2012, a Delhi-based scrap dealer purchased an A320 fuselage from Air India for around $24,000 to convert it into a museum devoted to the Indian spiritual master Sai Baba.
Another retired Air India plane was purchased by a Bengaluru-based company specializing in turning airplane scraps into theme restaurants. As reported by Mint, Royal Nag Aviation creates airplanes replicas for those interested in aviation-themed restaurants. The A320 model, in particular, is quite popular and costs around $250,000, including freight charges.
The company acquired a scrap airplane from Air India for about $270,000, which it uses to make moulds to create lookalikes.
Air India operates all three airplanes from the A320 family for most of its domestic routes. As reported last month, many of its narrowbodies are in desperate need of refurbishment and engine rehaul. With privatization just around the corner, the new owners will have to decide if it's worth it to spend millions of dollars to make them airworthy again.