Plane with nine on board disappears over Atlantic

The NZ Herald ^ | 12.09.2003 12.27 pm | Reuters

[yonif]

LISBON - A private plane with nine people on board disappeared shortly after take off from the Portuguese island of Madeira for Malaga, Spain, an airport official said early on Friday.

The twin-engine Beechcraft lost radar contact after taking off at 9.53pm (8.53am NZT) from the Funchal airport on Madeira, about 600km west of Morocco, the official said.

The US-registered plane was carrying a British pilot and eight Spanish passengers. The weather was clear. Rescue teams searching the Atlantic Ocean off Funchal have found no trace of the plane or its passengers.

[George from New England]

Atlantis?

[Newbomb Turk]

Look for them to cross our souther border in a beat up chevy pickup in about 48 hrs.

[sonsofliberty2000]

Any stroms in the area at the time of disappearance? The Alantic is going crazy as is.

New on Patriot Paradox: Interview with Chewed Gum and Tomorrow the Interview with 4mycountry

[glock rocks]

The twin-engine Beechcraft lost radar contact after taking off at 9.53pm (8.53am NZT) from the Funchal airport on Madeira, about 600km west of Morocco, the official said.

I suppose that actually the airport lost contact with the Beech, and report was made in haste. Sad news, but hey, when the Dodge breaks down on the interstate, ya call a tow... when the Beech breaks down over the ocean, well... ya lose radar contact.

prayers for the souls on board.

[maestro]

Prayers.

Amen,.......More Grace and Mercy,.......In Jesus' Precious Name, Amen!!!

[sonsofliberty2000]

Hmm; Anyone read Spanish?

http://www.cislamica.org/

[StriperSniper]

Madeira Satellite Image/Map

[Calpernia]

Damn! How did you know? There they go!

[BluH2o]

Any stroms in the area at the time of disappearance? The Alantic is going crazy as is.

Sailed a 15 meter yacht from Gibraltar to Gran Canaris a year ago this date. Sailed thru the same Atlantic waters this aircraft would have flown over, or ditched into. Sea conditions last year were basically flat, which is the norm for this time of year in that area. In fact we motored most of the trip because of light air.

[sonsofliberty2000]

Some history:

Madeira:

When the Infante Henrique, better known in English as Henry the Navigator, gathered together the finest cartographers and navigators of Portugal at the beginning of the 15th Century, his plan was to extend the knowledge of the coast of West Africa. Armed only with square rigged ships, compass, hourglass, and astrolabe, the initial sea captains were severely handicapped in their endeavours, and over the course of this, the finest hour of Portuguese maritime history, luck brought greater riches than the purities of science and logic.
Two young sea captains, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were blown off course on their journey around the African coast, and after many days at sea, found land on a small island that they named Porto Santo - the very first of the many discoveries made by the Henry's school of navigation. On reporting to Henry they were promptly ordered to return and colonise the island. The year was 1419.
Seductive as are the charms of the golden sands of Porto Santo it seems somewhat incredible today that it took a further year before the next discovery was made. The captains had reported a dark mass of clouds visible on the Southern horizon. They were now encouraged to explore this foreboding mass. As theories to whether the world was flat had yet to be completely disproven, it took an enormous leap of faith to cross the traversa.
As they approached, the huge Atlantic rollers breaking along north coast and the boiling turbulence of the cross currents at the Ponto São Lourenço cannot have eased the concern of the superstitious sailors. But on rounding the headland they discovered the bay of Machico, the threshold to the heavily forested island that they named Madeira. Prince Henry immediately organised the colonisation of the island, with the first families coming from the Algarve region of Portugal.

Today the statue of Zarco looks down on the descendants of the first colonisers as they navigate the corner in front of the Bank of Portugal building in downtown Funchal. As the Portuguese overseas possessions have shrunk, so the relative significance of this the first of the great discoveries has gained in importance. To find a needle in a haystack can be trying, but to find Porto Santo in an Atlantic storm was a lucky prize indeed.

Malaga:

Since being the Phoenician Malach or Malaca, the Roman Flavia Malacitana or the Arab Malaca, Málaga has been transformed into the fifth city in Spain, and today is the capital city of the whole province and of the Costa del Sol, since where, it send its most diverse tourist offer all over the world.

The setting is known since the first millennium B.C, at the same time of Gadir (Cadiz) establishment.

After the Greek colonisation, for more that seventy years, Málaga went through the Carthaginian domination, replaced by the Romans after the Punics wars.

With the decline of the Roman Empire and the advent of the Vandals and Silings, the 8th. century started with the broken in of the Islamism in the Iberian peninsula, which lasted until the 15th. century, upon the coming of the Catholic Monarchs.

Its after most development until becoming into a modern European city, it is enriched by the path of those races, cultures and creeds, which became into that special philosophy of life, with a mix of ancient scent and fresh air of that permanent open door which is the Mediterranean Sea.

Trace of that history are, the Roman theatre, discovered in 1951, which belonged to the republican epoch, although later, on (1st. century B.C.), were added marbles from Africa and Italy. The Alcazaba was a fortress built to defend the city from pirates, later, Badis el Ziri, King of Granada, transformed it into a beautiful palace. Atarazanas Gateway, the actual access to the central market, is the most representative trace of the Arab domination in town. It was built in the 18th. century by Abderraman III.

The Cathedral, was started in 1528 and ended two and a half centuries later, its choir-stalls is the most remarkable in Spain.

The Museum of Arts, is located in the palace of the Counts of Buenavista, it shows a magnificent collection of pictures, painted by Zurbaran, Murillo, Morales, Herrera el Viejo. etc. The Pablo Picasso Museum, belongs to the recent history, showing the power of the malaguenian culture and its situation, at European level. Another important sign of this culture revival is the regain of the Cervantes Theatre.

[glock rocks]

I've flown a king air all over the west, and have no worry about its worthiness whatsoever. Beech builds a great craft.... was it maintained properly, was the pilot at his best, was there anything else in this brief story that will flesh out in the future.

hmmmm.

[Bob J]

>

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[glock rocks]

thanks Bob... spaced it out. be right there.

[RightWhale]

The weather was clear.

No doubt. The hurricane has sucked all the moisture out of the atmosphere. They might have hit an invisible 160 mph gust.

[GOP_Proud]

With luck, maybe the Spanish "journalist" for Al Jazeera was on it. Otherwise, awful.

[AndyJackson]

Madeira is a beautiful island and is sort of the Hawaii for the Portuguese.

[expatpat]

Malaga also has a fine golf course at a Parador, west of town.

[sergeantdave]

Prayers to the passengers, the crew and their families. Ditching a plane in the ocean is scarey stuff, very scarey.