Doomed UTA Flight 141 May Have Been Stolen Angolan Boeing 727

The doomed UTA Flight 141 may have been a Boeing 727 that was stolen from Luanda airport in Angola in May, or a U.S.-registered aircraft that had undergone an exterior makeover at Beirut International Airport, where its technical worthiness had been questioned.

According to Wednesday's edition of An Nahar, neither of these theories has yet been proven, leaving officials scrambling to distance themselves from Lebanon's worst civil aviation catastrophe, even though it did not occur on its soil.

As more intrigues unfolded in the case of the Christmas Day crash of the Beirut-bound flight from Benin, the last batch of Lebanese victims were buried on Tuesday in Lebanon heart-breaking scenes across the country. They were among 77 bodies repatriated on Sunday from Benin by the French Air Force.

Only 21 people survived the Christmas Day tragedy in Cotonou, Benin's commercial capital, after a botched takeoff attempt.

Despite pressure from the Beirut government, there was still no official word on exactly how many people were on the plane – allegedly overloaded by some nine tons in humans and also exotic fruit. The unofficial list remained at 161 passengers and crewmembers.

But the owners of the plane, Union des Transports Africains - a joint Guinean-Lebanese enterprise - have yet to produce an official manifest.

The confusion has been worsened by the mysterious disappearance of the Libyan co-pilot from the hospital in Benin where he was being treated for injuries.

Parliament's Transport and Public Works Committee convened an emergency session Tuesday to address the possibility that Beirut Airport could be held liable for allowing UTA to operate its service between the African country and Lebanon.

High on the agenda is compensation for families who lost loved ones, not only dear to their hearts, but also their only source of financing.

Thousands of Lebanese expatriates in Africa provide the upkeep for relatives at home, and the Lebanese who perished on Flight 141 fall into that category.

There has been speculation that Lloyds, the London-based, worldwide insurance company that had covered the plane, might not be liable to pay any compensation for the families, since the airliner might have violated civil aviation rules.

Welcome to FreeRepublic, padilla1956.

I saw the interview with Benita Padilla-Kirland and her brother (was that you?) on Greta Van Susteren's 'On the Record' recently and realized my error in recalling her first name as Brenda.

Many here have been following the story of the missing plane and posting (possibly) related information to this forum. If I see anything posted that could be connected to your brother's disappearance and/or the plane, I will alert you and your sister.

I sympathize with the feeling of helplessness your family must be experiencing and hope your brother is found soon.

Here is a bit of aviation humor that I received in my morning Email....Enjoy

PILOT AND GROUND CONTROL

In his book, "Sled Driver," SR-71/Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes:

I'll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt (my back-seater) and I were screaming across Southern California, 13 miles high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as we entered Los Angeles airspace. Though they didn't really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope.

I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its ground speed.

"90 knots" Center replied. Moments later, A Twin Beech required the same.

"120 knots" Center answered.

We weren't the only ones proud of our ground speed that day... as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted, "Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests ground speed readout."

There was a slight pause, then the response, "525 knots on the ground, Dusty."

Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my back-seater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison.

"Center, Aspen 20, you got a ground speed readout for us?"

There was a longer than normal pause ... "Aspen, I show 1,742 knots."

No further inquiries were heard on that frequency.

In another famous SR-71 story, Los Angeles Center reported receiving a request for clearance to FL 60 (60,000 ft).

The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked, "How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet?

The pilot (obviously a sled driver), responded, "We don't plan to go up to it, we plan to go down to it." He was cleared .

There's a story about the fighter pilot calling for a priority landing, because his single-engine jet fighter was running "a bit peaked." Air Traffic Control told the fighter jock that he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down.

"Ah," the fighter pilot remarked, "The dreaded Seven-Engine Approach."

A student became lost, during a solo cross-country flight While attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, ATC asked, "What was your last known position?"

Student: "When I was number one for takeoff."

Taxiing down the tarmac, the DC 10 abruptly stopped, turned around and returned to the gate. After an hour-long wait, it finally took off.

A concerned passenger asked the flight attendant, "What exactly was the problem?"

"The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in the Number 2 [center] engine,"

explained the flight attendant. "It took us a while to find a new pilot."

"TWA 2341, for noise abatement, turn right 45 Degrees."

"Center, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make from up here?"

"Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"

John F. Reynolds, W5JFR, President MARC,
MSGT, USAF Ret.
Keep the frog on top and have a nice day. Rialto, CA. USA

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