Stolen Boeing 727 Feared In Hands of al-Qaeda

Bush Country ^ | 091103 | Gordon Thomas

[ConservativeConvert]

I have no problem with this happening in Saudi Arabia.

[ConservativeConvert]

Oops...misread the article. I certainly don't want innocent airline passengers getting killed.

[JustPiper]

Well, Snopes doesn't have anything on it, so I asked them to check it out -g-

[newgeezer]

Google not only can be viewed on your PC -- Google is P.C.

Say what you will; Google News does have this story. As I said, it has no related story -- likely because none of the 4500 sources has published one about this plane in the past 30 days (the Google News age limit).

[Ronin]

If Libya was still in the terrorism business, they might be able to hide it at one of the Colonel's Air Force bases... but after finally shelling out millions to get Lockerbie and the French airline bombs settled, I don't see him setting himself up for another round of world comdemnation by playing host to an Al-Queda airline suicide mission.

Where does that leave? Sudan? Maybe... but surely we have assetts in place now looking for it. If we don't the Brits do.

[JustPiper]

What did his brother post?

[Kenny Bunk]

The Deserts of the world are not all the flowing dunes of some 1930s Hollywood Foreign Legion movie, Ronin. The Sahara has many areas that are as flat as a board and at at least as hard as Muroc Dry Lake. So has the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, and plenty of places in Iraq, and Jordan, and Syria.

Would it be a safe landing or take-off? Hell no. But then it doesn't have to be.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Snopes is worthless if they think there is a political angle to the story that might hurt the Dems or help the GOP.

Online Rumor Mill Spins Its Own Myth(Snopes.com's leftwing bias undercuts its credibility)

[RJayneJ]

This is what I have been looking for. I don't understand why there has been so little coverage on something with so much potential danger to us.

[AdamSelene235]

Destination: The Abqaiq extralight crude complex, Saudi Arabia

Let's see that would put oil at about $120 a barrel and kick off Islamic revolution in Saudi Arabia.

Good.

[Dolphy]

This is interesting, the first article says ASL denied Padilla worked there:

Padilla had been at the airport for some weeks. He claimed he represented a Miami company called Aerospace and Leasing, ASL. The company later denied he was working for them.

But Padilla's brother claims to have talked with the owner, Maury Joseph of Aerospace Sales And Leasing in South Florida about the missing Ben and his work in Angola. Maybe the plane is being used for some other illegal activity.

[maestro]

Let's see that would put oil at about $120 a barrel and kick off Islamic revolution in Saudi Arabia. Good.

At those prices we would have to 'Nuke' them.......

:-(

[AdamSelene235]

At those prices we would have to 'Nuke' them....... :-(

Bummer.

Use cobalt jackets for the non-oil producing regions.

Salting the earth is for pansies.

[cyncooper]

message from Joseph B. Padilla, Sr.

[Ronin]

Hard enough to take a loaded 727? Flat enough to avoid ripping off a nosewheel during the takeoff or landing roll?

If this was an Il-76, which is geared and designed for short field/rough field operations, I would be concerned, but a broken down old 727? I wouldn't give it a prayer's chance in hell of getting off the ground, let alone down in one piece.

But, heck, you may be right. The fanatics may have it and maybe they will get lucky.

[ladyinred]

Well, no wonder we had the reports telling us the terrorists were still plotting to use planes, and perhaps fly one in from some other country. I can tell you the military has been very active all week in my area, with the jets and the helicopters constantly in the air.

[Ronin]

Thanks for sharing. Now go to your room and take your dessert with you.

[philetus]

They escaped before Saudi police could arrest them.

Saudi cops?

[concerned about politics]

The extra fuel capacity could give the plane a greater flight range. However, if the bad guys are planning to use the explosive/fire impact of the extra fuel, they would likely attack some target other than a plane in flight.

People stole the flight computers in Australia.
Maybe they want to shoot down another Australian flight, and pretend the stolen plane is it, but with lost communications. That way, people would think they're a normal plane on a normal path with a mechanical problem. They'd be allowed to pass and enter air space normally schedualed for the Austrailan plane.
America and Britton should keep a close eye on Australian planes for right now. If someone has lost communications, send up the jets for an escort out of town!.

[GRANGER]

If the story about the "stolen" 727 were true, we would have found it by now, and if we had found it, we would have destroyed it. There is no place on the Earth they could hide a 727, and there is no place on the Earth where we cannot put a team down on 12 hours notice or less. If all that happened, it will stay classified for quite some time, and so the "mystery" will continue.