The Jet Airways bus that had rammed into an Air India plane at the Calcutta airport on Tuesday could not be freed from under the aircraft's propeller on Wednesday.

An airport official said the "severely damaged" ATR 42 was leaning on the bus.

Airport police officers have seized the bus but could not take it to the police station, barely 100m away.

Momen Ali, the bus driver, had told police and airport security officers after the accident that he had dozed off while driving on the tarmac.

The bus, carrying two Jet flight attendants, had veered left from the designated path and hit the aircraft, parked in bay No. 32, on the right at 5.25am.

"If the bus is removed abruptly, the undercarriage of the aircraft might collapse, causing more damage," the airport official said. "The aircraft's undercarriage needs to be raised with a jack and replaced. That way the plane would not lean on the bus."

Air India officials said Jet Airways should pull the bus out because using a jack to raise the undercarriage could cause further damage.

But Jet officials said the bus could not be removed unless the undercarriage was raised.

And the police said they did not have the equipment or expertise to pulls the bus out.

"We have requested Jet Airways several times throughout the day to help extricate the bus," an Air India spokesperson said. "Unless this is done, we cannot assess the damage and seek compensation from Jet."

The spokesperson had said on Tuesday that the twin-turboprop aircraft sustained extensive damage to the right engine, right landing gear, propeller, nose wheel and some other parts.

Air India on Wednesday took passengers headed for Silchar and Lilabari in Assam by road from Guwahati.

Air India has two ATR aircraft operating from Calcutta to the Northeast. With one down, the airline has cancelled one flight on Thursday.

The directorate general of civil aviation has started an inquiry into the accident.