Another plane like Malaysia Airlines flight 370 vanished with GPS tracking

News Australia ^ | March 17, 2014

[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.

[GOPJ]

Ben Charles Padilla Ben Charles Padilla, an aircraft mechanic, flight engineer, and private pilot,[12] was aboard N844AA when it was stolen, and is believed by U.S. authorities to have been at the controls.[13] He has not been seen or heard from since.

Padilla's sister, Benita Padilla-Kirkland, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper that her family suspects Padilla was flying the aircraft and fear that he subsequently crashed somewhere on the African continent or is being held against his will.[14]

Any guess why this wasn't a big news story?

[deks]

In 2003, a 727 that once flew for American Airlines disappeared from Angola. (credit: Mike Gabriel)

The 727 that Vanished

A case pursued by the FBI, the CIA, the U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security, CENTCOM, and the sister of Ben Padilla.

By Tim Wright
AIR & SPACE MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2010

Seven years after her brother disappeared from Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in Angola, Benita Padilla-Kirkland is trying to persuade the FBI to re-open his case. She believes she has the “new information” agents told her they require. But she suspects that the agency already has more information than agents will admit to.

article from Air & Space Magazine - September 2010

[oldbrowser]

Sounds like a CIA deal.

[TXnMA]

The charter line was “Flying Tiger Airlines”. I flew on one of their Super Constellations all the way from Travis AFB, CA, to Tachikawa AFB, Japan. That was one loooong flight...

[Jack Hydrazine]

Have no idea!

[Kevmo]

We are totally screwed now, aren’t we?

[Nifster]

Very different plane and conditions

[Mark17]

I flew on one of their Super Constellations all the way from Travis AFB, CA, to Tachikawa AFB, Japan.

I bet it was. I flew on a C-5 from Travis to the Philippines. That was pretty long too.

[NoLibZone]

I am willing tro take over world wide aviation safety.

My first change will be to remove the ability to turn off any flight tracking devices such as transponders.

And the installation of a separate self powered tracking unit in an area only accessible to crew on the ground.

My ideas are revolutionary and support my 5 million dollar a month salary demands.

[Bikkuri]

You mean Yokota AB? It is near Tachikawa (Fussa).

[Fear The People]

So Al Qaeda has two airliners now to fit with bombs.

[TXnMA]

I was stationed (detachment tenant) at Yokota for 3 years, and always loved the Tanabata Matsuri in Fussa-Machi.

Won a couple of USAF awards for photos of it, in fact...

But, in 1961, when I flew in on Flying Tiger Air, (30 hrs of 4 droning recips, box lunches, school bus seats, and Marine drill sgts for hostesses) -- all incoming flights landed at Tachikawa... (AKA "Tachi"...)

[Bikkuri]

Ah, ok ;^) Learned something new :)

I loved going to Yokota myself.. The only place I could buy civilized food and hygiene items when I first got here.. Can get some things now that are a bit better than what they were back then... but can’t find and beef skirts (for fajitas) nor good deodorant :/ (and toothpaste is really lacking too :^{