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An arriving B727 from ... South America ... approved flight plan, listed under a current call sign, maybe even a regular cargo operator or contract cargo operation ...

Fortunately, a *real* terrorist would still have to:

a) secure an aircraft

b) keep the fact that a flying, serviceable aircraft is missing/suppress calls from the organization that would be *missing* said aircraft

c) secure/sign for fuel for the flight *without* arousing suspician as A LOT of fuel would be just 'missing' and surely shyow up on meters/fuel logs somewhere

d) 'inject' a bona-fide flight plan into the system from a 'trusted' source or channel - and if these are verified by a 'call back' to the originating source or organization I don't know ...

Then there is the aspect of using pre-assigned transponder codes known only to the captain (in an IFF capacity) and valid *only* for that flight (this technique is currenly used - but sparingly to my knowledge here in the US) ...

I appreciate what you are saying but the simple fact is… it’s a lot simpler than you would think.

To answer your questions…

One may have already been secured and has now vanished off the face of the planet.

Securing fuel is as simple as picking up the phone or landing at an airport with fuel services and buying the stuff. No special forms or ID is needed. The linemen usually don’t care who you are as long as your credit card is good and it’s not uncommon for cargo operators to land and buy fuel where the crew knows they can get it cheap at, which may or may not be the jets final destination.

So in short on the fuel issue you don’t have to steal it just buy it at such places like Nassau in the Bahamas or Trinidad both have large bizjets and old cargo birds in their quite a bit. Just pay cash for it, not unusual at all… heck we even have a small safe on out jet just for the purpose of carrying large sums of cash. Just last month I crewed a trip down to Chile and we had over $15,000 USD in cash aboard for the purpose of buying fuel at out destination because we knew ahead of time the Field FBO did not take credit cards.

To “inject a bona-fide flight plan into the system from a 'trusted' source or channel”…

All that requires is a simple phone call to the US FSS and talking with a briefer who will dutifully take your flight plan over the phone no questions asked, no special passwords needed or any secret hand shake… ever pilot from the lowest of student pilots to the mightiest of airline drivers knows this and does it on a regular basis. The FP is files instantly via computer and can be activated in about 30 minutes of your phone call and there is not now and never has been any type of call back system.

You do give the briefer the name of the Pilot in Command and a phone number where someone responsible for the flight can be reached. But if the pilot is indeed a licensed pilot which to fly a 727 he would surly have to be, he could just use his real name, assuming it’s not Osama bin Laden.

And I use my cell phone number when I file for private flights and a company 800 number when I file at work.

Transponder codes are no big secret at all, in fact if you buy yourself a air band scanner you an here them being read back to pilots on open frequencies all the time, and if you need what is called a clearance void time because you are departing from an uncontrolled air field when you file your FP with FSS the briefer will give you one right over the phone.

IFF codes are indeed unique to a specific aircraft, no two planes will have the same IFF code inside the US National Airspace System at the same time, but when only planes lands his code can be recycled within 60 minutes and given to a different plane.

Everyone on the flight deck knows the squawk code it’s not known only to the Captain, hell even the flight attendants can see if they know here to look and again it’s usually give to the flight crew on an open frequency over the radio.

Hope this clears a few things up

TMMT