And I also just remembered the stolen plane in Africa, where the remarkable part was that it had extra fuel tanks, so it could fly long distances without refueling.
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/03_Terror/030929.missing.Boeing.727.html Was it stolen for parts or to make a flying bomb?
The story began May 25, when two men climbed aboard an idle cargo jet in Angola and flew off into the African sky. The jet has not been seen since.
When the plane, with tail number N844AA, left Luanda airport May 25, the transponder was turned off, so the plane's position could not be monitored by air-traffic control.
Worse yet, the missing 727 cargo jet had been converted into a fuel tanker, making it highly desirable as a "flying bomb."
An American named Ben Padilla (NOT the same guy, as the one who is being held for attempting to build a dirty bomb) approached authorities a month before the plane disappeared, saying the owner wanted to take the plane out of Angola. Padilla was asked for $50,000 in fees accumulated during the year the plane sat in Angola. Padilla was one of the two men later seen boarding the plane just before it took off.
According to Padilla's family in Florida, he was hired to repossess the jet after Air Angola failed to make lease payments.
His sister, Benita Padilla-Kirkland, says she feared the plane had crashed or Padilla, 51, was being held against his will.
Wasn't there a story about a Canadian Cargo plane too? The thread I saw was back and forth on being a rumor.