June 10
Posted on 06/12/2003 7:06:05 AM PDT by Int
By Pierre Thomas
June 10
— The U.S. government has secretly launched an intensive campaign to find a Boeing 727 passenger jet that mysteriously disappeared in Africa three weeks ago, sources told ABCNEWS.
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Intelligence agencies have used satellites to try to locate the plane, the CIA is working its human sources in Africa, and embassies in Africa have been informed of the disappearance and asked to provide any information they may come across, sources said.
The plane's status is discussed every morning in meetings at various intelligence agencies and congressional intelligence committees. A number of government officials told ABCNEWS everyone is frustrated.
"When an aircraft of this size has been missing for so long it does raise some questions as to where it is and what it's being used for," said Chris Yates, editor of the London-based specialist publication Jane's Civil Aviation Security.
The Boeing 727 is 153 feet long and weighs 191,000 pounds.
Many Options
The plane disappeared out of Angola on May 25. But a government official says the Angolans do not know whether it was bound for Burkina Faso, South Africa, Libya or Nigeria. It's also not clear how many people were on board.
Some U.S. officials believe the plane may have been stolen to run drugs or guns. Others suspect it may have been crashed for insurance money.
American officials have so far turned up no evidence the disappearance is related to terrorism, but no one knows for certain, but the plane's disappearance raises some troubling security questions.
"It's extraordinarily troubling that you can literally disappear off the face of the Earth once you are airborne and fly across a continent like Africa," Yates said.
Other issues that officials cite include:
The most worrying possibility is that the plane might be used as a flying missile against a U.S. target in the manner of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"An aircraft could be either stolen or hijacked overseas, fly to the U.S., on schedule, and it wouldn't be seen on FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] radar, if it didn't want to be seen, until the very last minute," said Richard Clarke, former White House terrorism czar.
The chance of that happening is slim, Clarke said. "The government believes the plane would not have enough fuel to reach the U.S."
But that doesn't rule out an attack on a U.S. embassy or facility overseas in Africa — making U.S. officials no less intent on finding the missing airliner. |
Seeing as how it is Air Angola, I think they probably know exactly how long they can defer maintenence before a plane falls out of the sky, and they have the logbooks to prove it.
That would not be too farfetched. If the plane had any value at all, it would be low enough that risking litigation in a corrupt third world court system would be pointless. Might as well offer a bounty to get it back, no questions asked.
On the other hand, it's a good thing someone in our security apparatus is looking into this. a 727 is big enough to do very serious damage if loaded up with high explosives - much more than the planes of 9/11.
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The lack of security at many African and Third World airports.