Terrorism Fear Over Vanishing Aircraft

A Boeing 727 jet which made an unauthorised take-off from Luanda airport three weeks ago may be in the hands of terrorists, said US officials yesterday.

The CIA has alerted operatives across Africa and asked countries within flying range of Angola to help in the search for the 153ft, 90-ton former passenger aircraft.

Satellite read-outs of airstrips with the length of runway necessary to land the plane have so far failed to show any signs of the aircraft, which took off without control tower permission on May 25 in daylight.

American authorities think the plane, which had been at Luanda airport since March 2002, may have been taken as part of shady business deal and to avoid paying £2.6 million in airport taxes.

Chris Yates, a civil aviation security analyst for Jane's Aviation, said he had never come across a similar incident.

"There is a very murky world in African aviation including gun running and diamond smuggling, where planes are not always properly registered," he said.

Mr Yates said the plane was at one point in the hands of a company linked to an airline that flew cargo into Afghanistan for the Taliban before the US invasion.

According to Helder Preza, Angola's civil aviation director, it was grounded after being banned from flying over Angolan airspace because of incorrect documents.

This is wierd, I could have sworn I read the book.

Oh,I did. Turbulance by John J. Nance.

From amazon.com:

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly

It's unclear why anyone who's read a Nance novel is willing to board an airplane: Nance (Headwind, etc.), a veteran pilot, specializes in the scary side of flying, and his latest thriller delivers the suspense his fans want, even as its overcomplicated plot keeps it from reaching full altitude.

Meridian Airlines is a major carrier plagued by greedy management and hostile employees; Brian Logan is a surgeon whose wife hemorrhaged to death aboard a Meridian flight, for which he blames the airline. As Logan prepares to fly to South Africa on Meridian, the only airline available U.S. government officials are growing concerned about the possibility of terrorists planning to use an airplane as a weapon escaping detection by flying under the guise of, say, an airplane diverted by mechanical troubles.

Logan proceeds on Meridian toward South Africa, while the plane's sullen crew alienates passengers right and left; the pilot, fearing an engine fire, lands in a war zone in Nigeria, where the co-pilot is shot and left for dead. The plane takes off again, returning to Europe for lack of fuel, but a Nigerian warlord claims he has forced the passengers off the plane to hold them for ransom.

To folks in D.C., it looks as if a passengerless plane is heading to a major European city, with evil intent; meanwhile, on the plane, the passengers actually are rioting.

Nance's prose is serviceable, as are his characters; both lack subtlety, but do the job of spurring the plot to ever higher excitement. The novel's flurry of happy endings, however, will satisfy only the most Panglossian reader.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Bad news: not only must Meridian Flight 6 make an emergency landing in war-ravaged Nigeria but the CIA thinks that terrorists are aboard.

Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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