This is a strange one. A Jumbo Jet that had been sitting on a runnway for 14 months, suddenly starts down a runway, takes off and disappears.
Nobody knows who took it, or where it is...I didn't know there were scousers in Angola!
Hunt For Missing Boeing
by searchfothetruth 46 Replies latest social current
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berten
Amazing,with todays advanced technologies on using spysatellites,Ari Fleisher
tries to make us believe they have few leads as to where the plane might have gone to.
Did it get equipped with Klingon technology,to hide itself from radar & the sattelites above,maybe?
"The plane could be used in a 11/09 type of attack" they say.Yep,another fabricated/manipulated event to induce more
fear and unrest into the world's population is being prepared...
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searchfothetruth
It does seem strange doesn't it.?
What was the security like at the airport?
Can you just walk on and start a Jumbo Jet, or does it need preparation first? Didn't the airport staff notice it being prepared to fly?
It was on the runway for 14 months, so how airworthy was it? Who prepared it for take off?
How much fuel did it have in it...and who refuelled it?
I thought NORAD could track any plane, anywhere in the world? But what were the Angolan authorities doing?
Any plane that takes off has to be identified, and where could it have landed? You need a large runway to land a Jumbo.
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Curious Mind
The 727 is not a jumbo jet ,the 747 is accepted as being a jumbo and is more than twice the size of the 727.NORAD as the name suggests is the north amercan aerospace command and has no coverage in africa. I thought there was a little conspiricy theory starting there with the comments being made.
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searchfothetruth
Apologies Curious, you quite right, it wasn't a Jumbo, but still a pretty big plane to go missing don't you think.
On NORAD's website it says it has worldwide coverage, it can sense the take-off of a missile 'anywhere in the world'.
It's not a Conspiracy Theory...yet...just an interesting event that brings up some interesting questions.
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teenyuck
How exciting! Another conspiracy theory!
Ari Fleisher
tries to make us believe they have few leads as to where the plane might have gone to.
Bert, personally, I think Ari is behind it. He had it stolen for his Israeli friends....
Go into Google, type in Angola.
Read all the stories. This was in the news yesterday. When you get more details it changes the flavor of the story....
Here is the story I read:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7403-2003Jun17.html
By John MintzWashington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 18, 2003; Page A01The Boeing 727 had not budged from its parking place at the airport in Angola's capital city for 14 months, so when the jetliner started taxiing down the runway, the men in the control tower radioed the pilot for an explanation. There was no reply from the cockpit, even after the plane rumbled to a takeoff into the African skies.
The plane has been missing since it took off from the Luanda airport around dinnertime on May 25, setting off a continent-wide search for its whereabouts that includes the CIA, the State Department and a number of African nations. Their fear is that terrorists could stage a replay of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, using the plane in a suicide attack somewhere in Africa.
U.S. authorities say it is likely the airplane was filched as part of a business dispute or financial scam. But even so, they say, there is a danger that unscrupulous people in control of a plane that size could make it available to arms or gem smugglers, guerrilla movements or terrorists.
It has been a commonplace for decades in Africa for the paperwork on commercial aircraft, especially small and mid-sized planes, to be dodgy, and for regulation to be extremely lax, industry officials said. Planes continually change ownership, and the aprons of some African airstrips are littered with wrecked aircraft stripped for parts.
But losing a 153-foot, 200,000-pound aircraft is no common occurrence.
"I haven't come across this before in 22 years in this business," said Chris Yates, a civil aviation security analyst for the private Jane's Aviation service. "It is not a stretch to think this plane could end up in the hands of terrorists. A number of companies involved in gun running [and other crimes] in Africa have indirect ties to various terrorist groups."
In the post-Sept. 11 world, even the possibility that terrorists could obtain a large aircraft prompts intensive government scrutiny. U.S. officials are alarmed because large swaths of Africa are under heightened alert for terrorism. Last month, 42 people, including 13 terrorists, died in a series of orchestrated suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco. In November, 16 people, including three terrorists, died in the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.
Western intelligence officials say al Qaeda operatives are known to be casing possible targets in Kenya and other East African nations. On May 15, British officials suspended flights to and from Kenya after raising the perceived threat to its commercial flights there to the highest level, "imminent."
Homeland Security Department officials said that given the likelihood that thieves and not al Qaeda are behind the 727's disappearance, there is no cause for grave alarm.
"Yes, there is concern, and an ongoing search, but it is not one that could be described as a desperate search," said Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
U.S. spy satellites have snapped pictures of remote airstrips throughout Africa, starting with ones that are within half a fuel tank's distance from Luanda's "4 de Fevereiro" International Airport. The 28-year-old 727 had taken on 14,000 gallons of A-1 jet fuel shortly before it departed.
U.S. embassy personnel are traveling around Africa to ask host aviation ministries for any sign of the aircraft. "They haven't seen hide nor hair of it," said one government official. "It's so odd."
A large number of people and companies have owned, leased or subleased the aircraft in recent years. U.S. officials say that a few have been involved in shady endeavors. One firm recently involved in owning or leasing it, a U.S. official said, "has a history of allowing aircraft to be used by people for illegal things."
According to the private Airclaims airplane database, the 727's current owner is a Miami-based firm called Aerospace Sales & Leasing Co., which bought it in 2001 after it was flown by American Airlines for decades. In 1997, Aerospace Sales's president, Maury Joseph, was barred from running any publicly traded firm after he was convicted of forging documents and defrauding investors by exaggerating the profits of another company he ran, Florida West Airlines.
Joseph's son, Lance Joseph, said the company has committed no wrong. He said a firm that had leased the plane from Aerospace Sales -- a company whose name he said he couldn't recall -- had removed the seats and replaced them with fuel tanks. It flew the 727 to Luanda with a plan to deliver fuel to remote African airfields, he said.
According to the Airclaims database, a company called Irwin Air had planned to buy the 727 last month. No more information could be learned about the company.
Helder Preza, Angola's aviation director, told the Portuguese radio network RDP that the plane arrived in Luanda in March 2002, but that authorities prevented it from flying on because "the documentation we held did not pertain to the aircraft in question."
Angolan officials also demanded stiff ramp fees as well as settlement of private liens on the 727, Joseph said. Aerospace Sales was settling the disputes and planning to repossess the aircraft and fly it away when the 727 -- one of about 1,100 worldwide -- disappeared, he said.
Joseph also said that in recent months a former Aerospace Sales associate with whom he has had bitter financial disputes, Miami aircraft broker Mike Gabriel, had been in Africa stating that he planned to stop the plane's repossession and make a claim on it.
In the 1980s, Gabriel was convicted of importing 5,000 pounds of marijuana. He did not return messages left at his office requesting comment, and his attorney, Jack Attias, declined to comment.
Preza, the Angolan official, said that "the owner of the aircraft contacted us saying he wished to fly out of Angola." Then, he added, a man who presented himself as "the legitimate representative of the aircraft's owner'' -- a man Preza described as a U.S. citizen but whom he declined to name -- entered the aircraft. Moments later, Preza said, the man flew the plane away.
"The person who flew out the plane was no stranger to the aircraft," Preza said.
Another twist in the case is that the State Department is asking its diplomats in Africa, in searching for the 727, to ask host governments whether they have any information about two men that its cables say "reportedly" own the plane -- Ben Padilla and John Mikel Mutantu. The men are not listed as owners on any public database, and no other information about them was available.
Aviation expert Yates said the plane might never be located. "I suspect it's disappeared into the murky world of African aviation," he said.
Staff researchers Margot Williams and Mary Louise White contributed to this report.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company -
searchfothetruth
Exactly,
Interesting isn't it. The article you posted also said:
But losing a 153-foot, 200,000-pound aircraft is no common occurrence.
"I haven't come across this before in 22 years in this business," said Chris Yates, a civil aviation security analyst for the private Jane's Aviation service. "It is not a stretch to think this plane could end up in the hands of terrorists. A number of companies involved in gun running [and other crimes] in Africa have indirect ties to various terrorist groups."
U.S. spy satellites have snapped pictures of remote airstrips throughout Africa, starting with ones that are within half a fuel tank's distance from Luanda's "4 de Fevereiro" International Airport. The 28-year-old 727 had taken on 14,000 gallons of A-1 jet fuel shortly before it departed.
"The person who flew out the plane was no stranger to the aircraft," Preza said.
Another twist in the case is that the State Department is asking its diplomats in Africa, in searching for the 727, to ask host governments whether they have any information about two men that its cables say "reportedly" own the plane -- Ben Padilla and John Mikel Mutantu. The men are not listed as owners on any public database, and no other information about them was available.
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teenyuck
So the CIA is looking for the plane and the man who might be flying it, Ben Padilla. Good.
Someone is trying. What are the authorities in Angola doing? Doesn't seem to be a whole lot, huh?
Why would the US send a US citizen to Angola to steal a plane? Please explain your theories so when that plane crashes into something, we can all applaud your brilliance.
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searchfothetruth
Teenyuck
When did I say that the US had sent a US citizen to Angola to steal a plane?
And what theories do you want me to explain?
I asked earlier on what the Angolan's were doing at the time.
I just think it's an interesting story, I haven't made any 'theories' up.
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expatbrit
Teenyuck, I shouldn't really tell you this because it's top secret "Dubya" class classified, but it was the CIA who actually stole the plane. Tomorrow morning it's going to be flown up Searchfothetruth's toilet and crashed into whatever it hits on the way up. This will hopefully remove a threat to the Neo-Conservative agenda to take over the world, one clapped out third world country at a time.
Expatbrit