{"id":2183,"date":"2019-05-31T15:28:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T12:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africaglobalnews.com\/?p=2183"},"modified":"2019-05-31T15:28:22","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T12:28:22","slug":"two-mechanics-and-a-missing-boeing-727","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/two-mechanics-and-a-missing-boeing-727\/","title":{"rendered":"Two mechanics, and a missing Boeing 727"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Were it not\nfor the disappearance of MH370, one would have thought it essentially\nimpossible for a passenger jet to just disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And while\nit\u2019s been 5 years since the disappearance of MH370, there\u2019s another plane that\u2019s\nbeen missing for the past 16 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometime around sunset, on the 25<sup>th<\/sup> of May 2003, a Boeing 727 taxied on to the runway at the Quatro Fevereiro Airport in Luanda, Angola. It hadn\u2019t been cleared for a flight, it didn\u2019t communicate with the tower, its lights and transponder were off. It moved erratically on the runway, but managed to take off, following a southwestern trajectory over the Atlantic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\"\n     data-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5506089157017573\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1517254432\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>The plane,\na Boeing 727-223, was registered as N844AA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>N844AA was\n28 years old at the time, and had in its glorious past been owned by American Airlines.\nIt was still a good plane, but had been grounded at the airport for over a year\ndue to several hitches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"376\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/boeing-727.jpg?resize=696%2C376&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The plane in 1989, when it was still owned by American Airlines\" class=\"wp-image-2185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/boeing-727.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/boeing-727.jpg?resize=300%2C162&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/boeing-727.jpg?resize=768%2C415&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/boeing-727.jpg?resize=778%2C420&amp;ssl=1 778w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/boeing-727.jpg?resize=696%2C376&amp;ssl=1 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><figcaption>The Boeing 727 in 1989, when it was still owned by American Airlines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Flying Tanker<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>How it found\nitself in Luanda starts with a South African, Keith Irwin. Ever the\nentrepreneur, he\u2019d won a contract supplying fuel to diamond mines in Angola,\nwhere decades of civil war, which ended in April 2002, meant there were hardly any\nroads. A flying tanker was the only viable option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was a\njoint venture which failed, leaving Irwin with fuel tanks but no plane to fit\nthe tanks in. He also had a crew of six with no work in sight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As it were, Aerospace Sales and Leasing had a Boeing 727 to lease, and Irwin made a down payment to its owner, Maury Joseph, and took possession of the plane. The plane left American shores on February 28 2002, but the crew arrived in Luanda on March 14. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Its hitches had begun, as the plane was racking up airport charges everyday it remained parked. For perspective, the plane had been purchased for $1 million, yet owed the airport $220,000 upon landing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\"\n     data-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5506089157017573\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1517254432\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>What followed\nwas a frustrating wait by the crew, as the plane was grounded due to\nirregularities spotted by authorities. For one, it lacked a high frequency\nradio. A quick fix using a radio from a Cessna had to be removed, as well as\nanother attempt to install a <a href=\"https:\/\/fearoflanding.com\/accidents\/the-stolen-boeing\/\">military radio<\/a>\non the plane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore,\nit allegedly lacked the proper paperwork ascertaining its conversion into a\ntanker. For this and other unlisted irregularities, the plane was banned from\noverflying Angola. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Irwin had\nfound another supply job, and his crew, now four men after the departure of\ntwo, made 17 flights for this new job. Meanwhile, N844AA remained grounded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By April,\nwhen the civil war ended, the foreign crew had left, and the supply jobs were\nbeing jostled for by many other people. Irwin\u2019s partners were claiming\nownership of N844AA, yet Joseph had not yet received the full pay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the same\nmonth, Irwin realized he was being trailed by someone; he left Angola the morning\nafter an attempted break-in at his hotel room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>N844AA was\nabandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ben Padilla<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Very\nquickly it became a derelict junk, whose only valuable component was its\nengines. Joseph had found a buyer for these, and sought the services of an aircraft\nmechanic he had previously worked with to service them. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joseph sent Benjamin Padilla to work on the plane in April 2003, and in a month, it had become airworthy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\"\n     data-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5506089157017573\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1517254432\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>As had been\nplanned, Padilla was left with the task of hiring a pilot and a co-pilot so\nthat the plane could be flown out to South Africa once all airport charges had\nbeen cleared. The pilots were hired from Air Gemini, which Padilla also worked\nfor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It had also\nbeen arranged that, on the day before the flight, the plane would be taken to\nthe runway so that all engines could be run for a full system check. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the\nevening of May 25<sup>th<\/sup>, 2003, Benjamin Padilla boarded the plane,\nfollowed by his assistant, John Mikel Mutantu. No other person was seen boarding\nthe plane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Ben-Padilla.png?resize=350%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Ben Padilla had been involved in the sale of another of Joseph's Boeing 727 to Nigeria. \" class=\"wp-image-2184\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Ben-Padilla.png?w=350&amp;ssl=1 350w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Ben-Padilla.png?resize=164%2C300&amp;ssl=1 164w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Ben-Padilla.png?resize=230%2C420&amp;ssl=1 230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><figcaption>Ben Padilla had been involved in the sale of another of Joseph&#8217;s Boeing 727 to Nigeria.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Boeing\n727 is manned by a 3-person flight crew, and while Padilla was a pilot, he wasn\u2019t\ntrained or qualified to fly these passenger jets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet\nsomehow, with only two people seen boarding, the plane took off into the\nsunset, never to be seen again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All sorts\nof narratives have been issued to try and explain this, but its disappearance\nremains a mystery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Was it shot\ndown by the Angolan air force? This after all was less than two years after the\nSeptember 11 attacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Was it an\nattempt at insurance fraud? To claim the plane was stolen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Was it a\nmeans to avoid paying the accrued charges? Might the plane have been landed\nelsewhere and stripped of parts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Were there\nother people hidden in the plane, who may have coerced the two mechanics into taking\noff?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, the\nFBI closed the case in 2005, leaving it unresolved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It may have crashed into the Atlantic, and the ocean keeps its secrets too well sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Africa Global News Publication <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Were it not for the disappearance of MH370, one would have thought it essentially impossible for a passenger jet to just disappear. And while it\u2019s been 5 years since the disappearance of MH370, there\u2019s another plane that\u2019s been missing for the past 16 years. Sometime around sunset, on the 25th of May 2003, a Boeing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[213,214,215,216,217,218,219,220],"class_list":{"0":"post-2183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-history","8":"tag-angola","9":"tag-boeing-727","10":"tag-keith-irwin","11":"tag-luanda","12":"tag-maury-joseph","13":"tag-missing-airplane","14":"tag-mutantu","15":"tag-padilla"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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