'Impossible' mystery of two men who stole a Boeing 727 and disappeared without a trace
The aerospace mystery remains unsolved twenty years later
Featured Image Credit: Joseph B. Padilla / Flickr
There are some enduring mysteries that defy explanation.
Even twenty years after the incident, one aviation enigma remains unsolved, and it involves the unexplained theft of a massive Boeing 727 aircraft.
Passenger aircrafts are massive, hugely complicated vehicles that require extensive training to operate, and an entire infrastructure to keep supplied and maintained.
With this in mind, you wouldn’t think it would be that easy to just walk right up and take one right off the tarmac.
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However, one peculiar incident in 2003, shows otherwise.
In Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in Luanda, Angola was hosting an old defunct Boeing 727 aircraft. The aircraft had been built in 1975, and by 2003 was largely considered obsolete for passenger travel.
After serving 25 years with American Airlines, the big airplane was grounded in Angola, slowly accruing vast airport fees after an attempted sale fell through.
The aircraft’s owner, Aerospace Sales and Leasing, were preparing the aircraft to be flown to Johannesburg to be sold off to the highest bidder.
On May 25, 2003, two men boarded the aircraft. They were Ben C. Padilla, a flight engineer and pilot and John M. Mutantu, a mechanic. Both had been involved in refurbishing the plane for sale, so were authorized to be on board.
Neither man was qualified to fly a large aircraft like the Boeing 727, which usually requires a flight crew of three during normal operation.
The plane suddenly taxied down the runway and took off, heading south-west. The plane’s external lights remained off, and the crew did not respond to any attempts at communication by air traffic control. The transponder had also been turned off.
The Boeing 727 had 14,000 gallons of fuel on board enough to fly for 1500 miles without refueling. It headed south-west over the Atlantic Ocean, and vanished from radar.
The aircraft, and the two men flying it, then vanished without trace.
In 2003, only two years after the 9/11 attacks, tensions regarding unusual aerospace incidents was high. Despite an FBI and CIA investigation, nothing of note was turned up.
As users of Reddit pointed out, the Atlantic Ocean is a big place, and the plane could have simply crashed into it and vanished into the depths. It is unusual that no wreckage from the aircraft has ever turned up, but it is hardly the only plane to disappear into the ocean without a trace.
Theories about the reason for the theft about, ranging from a plausible idea of it being an insurance scam, to more out-there conspiracy theories involving terrorism and organized crime.