[Prodigal Son]

This is an interesting story. The plane was sort of impounded at the time of its abscondance (if that's even a word). It could be that the owner had it stolen because "it was his". It could be that someone else had it stolen for the odd vanity reason "because I want it".

But these possiblities necessitate that there be a pilot to fly the thing. It isn't like the average African is just going to walk in and take off with a 727. It had a limited amount of fuel on board as well. This is an interesting item. Either it crashed into the jungle somewhere or a prearranged landing point/refueling destination was set up. This starts to point to more sinister things.

Could the owner have stolen it and if so how would he hope to get away with it if not by selling it on the black market? If it winds up on the black market, who will be its ultimate owner? Would the cocaine/heroin industry take such a risk? They have the money and resources to construct an airfield anywhere they wish but would they go to the trouble when so many more inconspicuous and smaller aircraft are available?

How would al Qaeda use this plane? Do they just have a plane fetish? What's wrong with hijacking an 18 wheeler and filling it with explosives? Perhaps the plane was routed to Northern Africa where it would be relatively easy to strike a point in Europe? If al Qaeda has it and they have other devices for it than simply crashing it- what cargo do they hope to ferry?

Things that make you go hmmmmm....

[oceanview]

they renovate the plane, and somehow equip it with a weapon, then re-sell it to some legitimate third world airline that has a scheduled flight into the US.

[ChEng]

A repo job. May be in "FOGK" (Gabon}, new paint and papers and back on the African "market" in two days..

[illumini]

It would take 5 minutes to steal a 727.

[dr_lew]

The plane was sort of impounded at the time of its abscondance (if that's even a word).

"abscond" means "to depart secretly and hide oneself," so any abscondance that was perpetrated would have to be attributed to the pilot, not the plane. I think the misconception that it means "to take something" comes from the formula, "absconded with the merchandise." Hearing this, we assume that the act of theft is expressed by the verb, but in fact one might just as easily abscond without the merchandise, if one dared to contradict popular wisdom.