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Story of a Stolen Boeing
- spchampion2 8y agoWait, this is somehow a mystery? Two people who had no experience flying 727s fueled up a plane, somehow got it airborne, and flew out over the Atlantic Ocean never to be seen again. Oh, and 727s require three people to properly fly them. There's no mystery here. They crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.
- joshstrange 8y ago> Oh, and 727s require three people to properly fly them. 3 people to safety fly them. I doubt the plane shuts off if three life-signs aren't detected. > There's no mystery here. They crashed in the Atlantic Ocean. From the article >> Unlike other plane disappearances, no debris has been found in the ocean from the aircraft I'm not saying your suggestion isn't valid or potential what happened but it's appears to be far from certain.
- ceejayoz 8y agoThey only found 20 pieces of MH370, and that was with genuinely massive media attention and the most expensive search in aviation history. A plane in Angola with two criminals aboard? No located debris isn't indicative of much.
- ovi256 8y agoPieces are going to be found on the ocean floor in some decades in a random sonar survey of the bottom for a new pipeline, I guarantee it. Commercial applications like this are the only reason to do large area bottom surveys.
- _vn5r 8y agoI'm not a pilot. But with the fact that "somehow" they got airborne, I give them the benefit of doubt re: landing.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoGetting airborne is pretty easy. Landing is far harder. That said if the pilot has any experience in similar sized aircraft and has the checklist for landing it should be doable so long as the weather isn't terrible and nothing out of the ordinary happens. If you're just trying to land on some particular miles long section desert then that makes things a lot easier. Trying to drop out of the sky onto a short runway in a valley that's just barely longer than your minimum stopping distance is not likely to end well for a pilot who is not very at home flying that particular type of aircraft. IMO this aircraft is probably at the bottom of the Atlantic somewhere.
- _vn5r 8y agoNews reports and Wikipedia article mention that Ben C. Padilla was an American pilot and flight engineer and had a private pilot's license.
- smacktoward 8y agoThat he held a private pilot's license doesn't tell us much. You can get a private pilot's license without ever flying anything bigger than a single-engine Cessna. A multi-engined jet aircraft like a 727 is a completely different beast.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoGenerally speaking someone who's qualified to lead an operation to "restore an aircraft to airworthy condition" is also technically qualified to fly it even if they don't have the proper credentials.
- whatever_dude 8y agoMy flight simulator experience taught me that landing a big airplane is extremely more difficult than taking off, specially if unassisted by airport instrumentation.
- ynniv 8y agoThe state of 727's five years before this event: Planes equipped with newer Category Three navigational equipment can land on autopilot, even in the worst weather. Pilots never even have to touch the controls. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-02-12-9802120422-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-02-12-980212...
- nraynaud 8y agoThis is not going to happen at a small airport and without the collaboration of ATC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwbTq_4-jGg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwbTq_4-jGg CAT3 landing need a lot of things aligned properly to work.
- ynniv 8y agoFor a safe, commercial autoland you would need CAT3, but if you're willing to take risks you could get by with less. And you would need a friendly ATC anyway or you wouldn't stay hidden for long. But the fact that the plane is capable of landing by itself means that it could be somewhere other than the bottom of the ocean.
- erentz 8y agoMaybe. But it’s still a mystery as to why they stole it, where were they going to take it and what was going to become of it.
- cpr 8y agoHas the whiff of a typical black ops CIA operation...
- matthewmcg 8y ago"in the process of being converted for use by IRS Airlines" This is a Nigerian airline, but the name makes me think of this classic Simpsons bit: https://frinkiac.com/meme/S07E15/477243.jpg?b64lines=ICggZ3JvYW5pbmcp https://frinkiac.com/meme/S07E15/477243.jpg?b64lines=ICggZ3J...
- T-hawk 8y agoClickbait editorialized title, the real page is "2003 Angola 727 disappearance".
- sciurus 8y agoThere are ore details in the story at https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/the-727-that-vanished-2371187/?all https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/the-727-that-v...
- ericcholis 8y agoWith $4 million in unpaid airport fees, one could fantasize it was stolen for insurance fraud.
- Waterluvian 8y agoThese stories are interesting because with all our technology it's nice to see a mystery can still exist.
- vikaskyadav 8y agoyup. That MH370 case is also one of them.