What happened to the stolen Boeing 727?

Its last owner was reported to be a Miami-based company called Aerospace Sales & Leasing. The aircraft had been grounded at Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, Luanda, and sat idle for 14 months, accruing more than $4 million in unpaid airport fees.

Who stole the Boeing 727?

Ben Charles Padilla is believed dead – but he’s still officially missing – and so is the 727 airborne fuel tanker that he stole. Ben Charles Padilla is believed to have been piloting a Boeing 727 that took off and disappeared from an Angolan runway on May 25.

Where was the Boeing 727 that went missing in 2003?

On 25 May 2003, a Boeing 727, registered N844AA, was stolen at Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, Luanda, Angola. Its disappearance prompted a worldwide search by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). No trace of the aircraft has since been found.

Who was the pilot of the Boeing 727?

Joseph eventually hired a certified aircraft mechanic, flight engineer and private pilot named Ben Charles Padilla to return the 727, now in disrepair, to a flight-safe condition so it could be repossessed. He scheduled an Air Gemini crew to fly it out on May 26, 2003, but when they arrived, they discovered the aircraft was already gone.

What was the name of the plane that disappeared?

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 In 2003, a 727 that once flew for American Airlines disappeared from Angola.

Where was the Boeing 727 that Ben Padilla was on?

On May 25, 2003 at Quatro de Feveriro International Airport in Angol, shortly before sunset on a clear day, Ben Charles Padilla was seen boarding a Boeing 727 that he had previously been hired to work on. The Boeing had been manufactured in 1975 and had formerly been owned by American Airlines.