Report: Fears vanished Boeing 727 to be used for terror

Jerusalem Post ^ | Jun. 13, 2003 | THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF

[yonif]

Western investigators are seeking a Boeing 727 passenger aircraft that disappeared May 25th under mysterious circumstances from the airport at Luanda, the coastal capital of Angola, Maariv reports. There is concern that terrorist organiations will use the aircraft in a September 11th-style attack.

"The pilots simply switched on the engines and took off," said an air traffic controller. The plane has not been spotted since. "I'm not aware of such an incident in the entire history of civilian aviation," said a US National Security Agency official.

Africa is considered the "wild west" of civilian aviation.

[yonif]

Ping.

[battlegearboat]

Shot down.

Three guesses who did it.

[NetValue]

"Shot down."

Details please. Is that a statement like it WAS shot down? Or a question, as in "Shot down?"

[prisoner6]

I think we talked about this earlier and came to the conclusion it had been repo'd by creditors.

Not sure if that had been confirmed though.

prisoner6

[SubMareener]

It has not been shot down. We don't know where it is, except it is probably somewhere in sub-Saharian Africa.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Africa is considered the "wild west" of civilian aviation.

I know that's right.

Africa is far worse even than Turkey, where the terminal staff totally mixed up two flights that were leaving the same morning, and one of the flights flew away about half an hour early.

Fortunately, ours was the other flight. I think it left a few minutes early too. Amazingly, it arrived in the correct city.

[MCRD]

Well if the terrorists hadn't thought of this before, they've got the idea now.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

In fact, this thread reminds me of a video presentation I saw a few years ago that involved travel to and from a certain country in Africa that will remain nameless (mostly because it's actually one of the better countries).

The folks who put the show together had it "narrated" by an "African pilot." One of the scenes showing the jet taking off from the African airport, quite deliberately, showed a big jumbo jet taking off backwards.

Needless to say, it got the expected laughs. :-)

[gcruse]

Put its picture on milk cartons. This looks like a custody battle being warped into terrorism by a worried mommy.

[MEG33]

Here's one about the plane.