Posted on 03/16/2014 7:18:20 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
IN an age of constant information, the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has been dubbed the biggest mystery in aviation history. A plane of its size has never dropped out of the sky. Or has it?
In 2003, a Boeing 727 jet also disappeared. It was the largest aircraft to ever vanish without a trace. This plane, like MH370, had all the mod cons and was fitted with GPS.
A crew member looks out the windows from a Malaysian air force CN235 aircraft during a search and rescue operation to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Source: AFP
At Luanda airstrip, Angola, an American engineer Ben Charles Padilla and his new Congolese assistant John Mikel Mutantu, boarded the Boeing 727. It had the tail number 844AA. The men were meant to get the plane in shape for its next flight.
Neither engineer had a commercial pilot’s license or permission to be in the cockpit — yet suddenly the 153-foot plane taxied to the runway and took off.
Just before its sunset takeoff, the aircraft’s headlights and transponders were switched off.
Both men failed to answer calls from air controllers.
Authorities watched as the jet headed southwest towards the Atlantic Ocean. It was the last sighting of 844AA.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
I don’t remember hearing about this. It was never found?
Maybe there’s some island of misfit planes out there, where they go when they’re lonely or feeling bad about themselves.
Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket.
Was that Padilla pilot any relation to the one that was involved with terrorism..I think his name was Jose Padilla
Family of Possible 727 Pilot: "He Is Not a Terrorist"
ABC News - WASHINGTON - June 18 [2003]- While international authorities continue their search for a missing jetliner, fearful that it could be used in a terror attack, the family of the American believed to have been piloting the aircraft worries about his fate.
Oh and Jose Padilla was thought to possibly have been involved with Oklahoma
http://archive.glennbeck.com/news/06132002.shtml
Interesting stuff from the FBI(?) via wikipedia:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/padilla_ben.html
Padilla’s brother was a member of Free Republic
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/931538/posts?page=52
I thought it ended up in Saddam Hussein’s School For Terrorists outside Baghdad.
Dunno if you still check in once in awhile, but your brother’s disappearnce is still on the list of
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/padilla_ben.html
St. Petersburg Times - Did terrorists take the Boeing 727 in Angola? What happened to the Florida man aboard? So far, no answers.
Excerpt. . .
For several weeks before, the 50-year-old pilot and aircraft mechanic had been at Angola's main airport overseeing refurbishment of an aging Boeing 727. The plane had been parked so long that observers were surprised when, shortly before sunset on May 25, Padilla and another man climbed on board, revved up the engines and taxied out.
Witnesses were even more surprised to see the plane swerve back and forth, as though someone were wrestling for the controls. Then, with no flight plan or contact with the tower, the big jet roared down the runway and took off.
That was the last known sighting of the 727 and Ben Charles Padilla.
Did the plane crash into the jungle or plunge into the Atlantic Ocean off the Angolan coast?
Did it disappear as the result of an insurance scam or garden-variety theft, only to resurface in another Third World county with a new paint job and registration number?
Or did something more sinister happen, as Padilla's family and others fear? Could the 727 - which had been retrofitted to carry tons of extra fuel - been hijacked by terrorists for use in a 9/11-style attack?
last post was January 17, 2004.
From the thread linked above, comment #65 by padilla1956 . . .
excerpt. . .
“Yes,
I am Joseph B. Padilla, SR.
I live in Pensacola, Florida - U.S.A.
I am the Brother of Ben Charles Padilla Jr.
He is suspected to be the Pilot of the Missing Boeing 727 Plane that left the Airport in Angola on May 25 2003.
I am tring to reach news organizations to help me locate anyone that has seen or heard anything about this missing plane or my brother.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/931538/posts?page=65#65
Comment #65 was on September 5, 2003.
Skynet version 1.0
When he went to the info desk, they told him a pane bound for his Nam destination was loading and had one seat left. He had the option of takinjg this flight or waiting around a couple hours.
He opted to go instead of wait.
Somewhere in the Pacific, figured near Guam, that charter plane (Tiger Airlines I believe)went down without any Mayday signal and was never heard from again. As far as I know, they never found any wreckage.
Another spooky thing was this pilot had been in a couple of near miss crashes and said he could hear JC calling him--in essence, a spooked feeling like someone walking on your grave.
vaudine
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