MYSTERIES

 This is an aviation mystery I thought worth retelling if you haven't heard it before.  I always wondered if you could do this.

On May 25, 2003, a Boeing 727 aircraft was stolen from an airport in Angola, Africa.  The plane had been sitting at the airport for some time because some fees had not been paid.  An American named Ben Padilla and a Congolese man had been hired as mechanics to get the plane back into operational status.  

The two evidently had the plane gassed up and fit as it needed to be.  Ben was a pilot of small planes and his friend was not a pilot at all.  Neither was certified to fly the 727.  They got into the pilot and copilot seats, had the transponder turned off and taxied to a runway ignoring the towers orders.  Witnesses say the takeoff was rather erratic but they made it.  Out they flew, over the Atlantic Ocean.  

The FBI, CIA, Interpol and Angola police searched the ocean but have come up with nothing.  Neither the plane nor thieves have been seen or heard from since.  Law enforcement people believe that it either crashed at sea, was involved in insurance fraud by it's owner, was to be used in smuggling or such, or was intended to be used by terrorists.  It is a cold case that may never be solved.