Stolen in Africa - A B727!

[BAKELA]

Check out this thread on a stolen B727. http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...threadid=91406

Jeepers - what next!!!!!

[126,7]

Question is: Where would they have taken the plane? Is it still flying on the american register as the one chap mentioned, if it is indeed that aircraft.
An AN32 came in VFR to Lanseria once from Maputo after having "escaped". The aircraft was grounded in Mozambique and the crew said they just wanted to run the engines to make sure everything is in order. Next thing they were airbourne and heading west!!!

[Gunship]

"Terrorism Threat"

A terrorism threat is a serious matter .. refuel in "old Unita - held area " and well fly into a building / crowd anywhere in Zim / Zambia / SA .. or back to "base" ... no Gunns you are pesimistic now .. SIT DOWN

[international hog driver]

Guns me ol mate...

The only building this bird damaged was the domestic pax terminal in Luanda.
It was stuck in the mud and the tug could not budge it so buddy gets in and powers it out.

727 at full power, tail to the terminal......

It coated everything with mud then blew the roof off the baggage area before then taking the tug for a ride.

Oh africa.....

[Gunship]

So IHD .. you wanna tell me the aircraft has been standing for a year , stuck in mud and he had to blast his way out of the mud and rubbish, blew a terminal a bit and off he goes ..

It is not 1 April is it ...

You guys have not seen an explosion shortly after take off ?

This is amazing - really amazing and nobody knws anything about it ???

[international hog driver]

No not april 1,

The mud/terminal incident happened a couple months back.

There's more but its not for a public forum.

IHD

[Gunship]

I (we) are all ears

[B Sousa]

Come on Guns, its not like you not to feed the Rumor Mill. What really happened.
1. Somebody got paid big dollars to go and repo the thing??
2. Somebody actually stole it, probably for scrap value??
Either way how come we didnt think of it, what a fun ride....
The one thing that bothers me is that just maybe Osmas idiot friends may have gotten it.....

[Gunship]

Oh Bert ... oh Bert you crooked minded 'merican ... too much blendid rum from Jamaica mon and then the weed from Viljen and co has made the damage ...

I think this is what happened .. ...

Bert .. you need some Tassie's on you next visit to me in the Cape ... then you would have had a beter idea of what happened.

It is an insurance scam ..

IHD .. we await your answer in constipation

[international hog driver]

Put it this way gun's................. and everyone else.

There are many available 727 rated pilots both local and expat in country at anytime.

There has been questions asked.........

Who knows what and were it will go

Lets say that among "certain groups" it has been known that something was planned. There are only two ways to get that volume of go juice into a "parked" aircraft.

Funny that

There are people who know what was going on but for now and probably until they retire or crash mum's the word.

[WhatsaLizad?]

In the short term,I'd rather not be the poor slobs in an innocent 727 with nav and comm problems near Israeli airspace.

[fesmokie]

To you guys in Africa who are in the know about this aircraft, Was it a fuel hauler delivered last year with the reg # N844AA ? Silver and blue with the American Airlines logo scraped off the Vertical? Just curious.

[international hog driver]

Affirmative smokie, don’t know if it had the tanks in it though never been inside this one.

[fesmokie]

Int Hog Driver

Oh yea it had tanks. Ten Aluminum 500 gallon tanks each plummed together by a four inch manifold with shutoff valves on each one and a very unique vent system. At least they were installed in the aircraft when I left that god for saken place last year.

[concordino]

Guys

According to the other thread in rumors and news ONE man stole the plane.
Realistically speaking, can one man fly the 727? Don’t you require a F/E?

I guess there is a new job on the horizon with a good future outlook

Airplane Bounty Hunters

[fesmokie]

One Man U ask

Sure one guy could do it. All he would have to do is set up the panel correctly for take off and once he's airborne let the auto pilot do the flying while he makes adjustments to the FE panel. As long as he has No major systems failures or has to crank the gear down, it could be done.

[DownIn3Green]

I agree also that one guy could do it, but a "co-conspiritor" would make the job dead easy...

Also, as mentioned previously, there had to be someone on the inside, as the $$$$'s owed go to different places...the gov't, fueller, ATC, local militia and anyone else with a hand to put out...

I have been on the crew of one repo from Guam (which ended up in Luanda-anyone remember N118CL?) and have been the Capt on 2 others from Eastern Europe.

I wasn't privvy to the details of the 1st one, but the 2 I took out of XXXXXX all I had to do was grease the ATC and Aerodrome folks, and the local police...

As anyone knows, the radar is minimal at best along the west coast of Africa, and there are many places to land, and if the money man is in one of those countries, you can bet the wheels were greased to make the arrival smooth...

[fesmokie]

Down in 3 Green

I agree with you 100%. When we left that aircraft and mess in Luanda we all had to grease the palms of the officials at the airport prior to boarding our flight to S Africa. What amazed me though was the whole time there we had to pay to have the airport authoritys drive us out and back from the aircraft every time we needed to. We (the crew) were not allowed to walk to the airplane.It cost about $20.00 US each way. The ramp rats and mechanics were allowed to walk about the ramp quite freely.I can see that if you greese the right palms you could get easy access to just about anything at the airport or in Luanda period.I wouldnt be a bit surprised that it was the REPOman and most likely from MIA. I also think that it would be an easy trip South to Namibia where one could hide cheap and or buy gas for the bird. It's all just PFM.

[WhatsaLizad?]

I made a joke of the situation before learning of this a/c's fuel capacity.

After reading about 24 hour fighter cover and SAM's around the G8 summit, I can't help to wonder if the pucker factor of the security folks there might be a little high for good reason.

I wouldn't doubt that the defense ring around Evian extends quite a ways. No doubt there has been more than a few briefings about this missing a/c along with photo's of it in the cockpits of armed interceptors.


My bet is still on a repo job though.

[Herc Jerk]

was in-country when they "left", heard it was 2 guys- not one as previously mentioned.

HJ