[angkor]

Here's arrival info from the Beruit airport database:

http://www.beirutairport.gov.lb/home.html

2003-11-06 2004-03-28 23:00 GIH 141 Conackry COTONO

So this was GIH flight 141 originating at Conackry, Guinea.

GIH is Union Transports Africains de Guinee, an Indonesian company.

http://www.jetliners.net/airline_icao_codes-bycode.php

Or perhaps its a Guinean company:

ICAO Airline codes

Over on another forum, a fellow says of this company: "Resurecting the name of a french airline, which was once a prominent player between Europe and Africa until it was absorbed by AF in 1992 UTA/Union de Transports Aériens [actually Union Transports Africains/angkor] is a venture set up in Guinea Conackry with capital provided by Lebanese nationals. The airline was set to take up a couple of former American Airlines 727-223s. One of these was even rolled off from the paintshop at Sharjah in the basic colors of AA + UTA company logo and tls."

Now, I find three things exceedingly odd about all of this:

1) Benin's Conackry airport is where the "missing" 727-233 was last spotted. There are refs here and here.

2) Today's crash originated from that same airport, and in our current security environment this is suspect.

3) Is UTA Indonesian or Lebanese or Guinean?

So here we have an airline crash involving a company owned by Lebanese/Indonesians which was setup to purchase 727-233's from American Airlines, originating from the same airport where a missing plane (also a 727-233) was spotted on June 28th.

I don't want to go too tinfoil on this, but its .... interesting?

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

It may be that a terrorist did indeed attempt to take this aircraft off the runway. If said terrorist/terrorists only had basic flight training, they would not have the skill to control it, if something either went wrong or if they caused something to go wrong.

I find it very odd that they would not retract the gear immediately, as well as they attempted a turn in a departure configuration.

All Airline Transport rated pilots are intenseley trained and tested in this specific situation.

[Central Scrutiniser]

Conackry is in Guniea so it would be impossible for it to be in Benin! UTA is a French airline, been around a while, they do lots of charter work.

So, we have a different airport than the conspirationalists say, and a differently owned airline than the conspirationalists say.

Being a conspiracy theorist means never having to be precise or correct.