History has a particular way of repeating itself, as humans tend to believe that aircraft fuselages can fit through all flyovers and bridges despite their big size. In India, yet another Airbus A320-200 has somehow gotten stuck under the Medarametla flyover in the Bapatla district as it was en route to Hyderabad.

Another aircraft getting stuck

The aircraft in question is VT-ESB, an Airbus A320-200 that first took off in January 1993 before being delivered to Indian Airlines in March of the same year. VT-ESB was previously able to transport 146 passengers in a two-class cabin configuration, with 20 seats in business class and 126 seats in economy class.

Then in August 2007, VT-ESB was transferred to Air India after Indian Airlines merged with the national carrier, and the aircraft was reconfigured for 168 passengers in a single-class cabin. A decade later, in February 2017, after accumulating over 62,640 flight hours within 41,888 flight cycles, VT-ESB was withdrawn from use by Air India due to the aircraft's relatively old age of more than 25 years.

Eventually, VT-ESB was bought by the famous Hyderabad-based restaurant chain Pista House as the company was looking to construct a new aviation-themed restaurant. The sale happened in Cochin, as VT-ESB was temporarily stored at Cochin International Airport. With VT-ESB officially in its possession, all Pista House had to do was transport the Airbus narrowbody.

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How did the aircraft get stuck?

Transporting VT-ESB from Kochin to Hyderabad certainly sounded much easier than actually doing the more than 10-hour drive. Still, Pista House made it happen once the aircraft was scrapped off its wings and tail and eventually strapped onto a lorry. However, the direct road leading to Hyderabad was closed as there were road works to remove rocks.

The road closure meant that all vehicles going towards Hyderabad were now being diverted to drive through the Medarametla underpass, which also proved a slight hiccup in the transportation plans of VT-ESB. Nevertheless, the plan continued, and the lorry diverted toward the Medarametla underpass. Unfortunately, the fuselage of VT-ESB got stuck about halfway through the underpass.

After causing a slight traffic jam and attracting the attention of several onlookers, VT-ESB was successfully brought out from under the flyover with help from the local police. It was reported that the aged aircraft suffered minimal to no damage to its fuselage, which was indeed good news for Pista House. The aircraft has since continued to Hyderabad with no further sticky incidents.

Bottom line

Surprisingly, VT-ESB is not the only former Air India narrowbody that got stuck during road transportation. Last year, another Airbus A320 was stuck under a bridge near Delhi Airport, and in 2019, a Boeing 737-200 that was also formerly operated for the national carrier got stuck in a similar fashion. However, the sticky fate does not simply lie within the former narrowbody fleet of Air India.

Other airlines, such as the now-defunct Southern Winds and China Southern, had their former aircraft stuck in similar unfortunate circumstances. Hopefully, VT-ESB is the last time a narrowbody aircraft gets stuck during road transportation, as people might finally learn that these narrowbodies aren't that narrow after all.

Source: ap7am.com

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  Air India

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  AI/AIC

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport

  Year Founded:

  1946

  Alliance:

  Star Alliance

  CEO:

  Campbell Wilson

  Country:

  India

  Region:

  Asia

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  Airbus

  Stock Code:

  AIR

  Date Founded:

  1970-12-18

  CEO:

  Guillaume Faury

  Headquarters Location:

  Toulouse, France

  Key Product Lines:

  Airbus A220, Airbus A320, Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A350, Airbus A380

  Business Type:

  Planemaker