Air India is facing a massive £82,000 parking fee for a passenger plane it lost more than a decade ago. The company remarkably misplaced a Boeing 737 following a flight back in 2012.

The huge 30-tonne plane simply vanished from records, and was written off by the firm after its management was unable to track it down. However, the mystery of its disappearance was finally solved this month, but it came with a vicious sting in its tail. Air India was contacted by Kolkata Airport at the beginning of December and told to come and pick up its forsaken passenger jet.

They were then stunned after being slapped with an invoice for 10 million rupees (roughly £82k) to cover parking fees for the Boeing.

It turns out that the plane had been left quietly sitting in a remote part of the tarmac at the international airport.

Air India tried to claim the plane was not one of theirs, but to no avail. The Boeing is understood to have been previously registered to Indian Airlines.

The state-owned company merged with Air India 18 years ago, and was rented to the Indian postal service before being converted into a cargo aircraft.

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson reportedly decided the plane should be decommissioned. Unfortunately, his decision was omitted from official documents – leaving workers hunting for the empty jet for months.

Air India has had a difficult year, following a horrific crash in June that killed over 200 people.

Flight 171 crashed just 32 seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport en route to London Gatwick on June 12.

241 people on board the plane were killed, while another 19 perished after it plunged into residential buildings.

Viswashkumar Ramesh was one of 53 British people on board the plane and miraculously survived the horror crash.

Mr Ramesh, who lives in Leicester, told Sky News he is still suffering physical discomfort after the crash – dealing with knee, shoulder and back pain, as well as burns to his left arm.

Mr Ramesh has been offered a flat interim payment of £21,500 – a one-off sum given to a claimant in advance of reaching the end of a personal injury claim.

Air India have been approached for comment.