=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2003/06= /18/MN75061.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, June 18, 2003 (SF Chronicle) Jetliner's vanishing act in Angola worries authorities/Officials fear repla= y of Sept. 11 attack John Mintz, Washington Post Washington -- The Boeing 727 had not budged from its parking place at the airport in Angola's capital city for 14 months, so when the jetliner started taxiing down the runway, the men in the control tower radioed the pilot for an explanation. There was no reply, even after the plane rumbled into the African skies. The plane has been missing since it took off from the Luanda airport around dinnertime on May 25, setting off a continent-wide search for its whereabouts that includes the CIA, the State Department and a number of African nations. Their fear is that terrorists could stage a replay of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, using the plane in a suicide attack somewhere in Africa. U.S. authorities say it is likely the airplane was filched as part of a business dispute or financial scam. But even so, they say, there is a danger that unscrupulous people in control of a plane that size could make it available to arms or gem smugglers, guerrilla movements or terrorists. It has been commonplace for decades in Africa for the paperwork on commercial aircraft, especially small and midsize planes, to be dodgy, and for regulation to be extremely lax, industry officials said. Planes continually change ownership, and the aprons of some African airstrips are littered with wrecked aircraft stripped for parts. But losing a 153-foot, 200,000-pound aircraft is no common occurrence. "I haven't come across this before in 22 years in this business," said Chris Yates, a civil aviation security analyst for the private Jane's Aviation service. "It is not a stretch to think this plane could end up in the hands of terrorists. A number of companies involved in gunrunning (and other crimes) in Africa have indirect ties to various terrorist groups." U.S. officials are alarmed because large swaths of Africa are under heightened alert for terrorism. Last month, 42 people died in a series of orchestrated suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco. In November, 16 people, including three terrorists, died in the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. Western officials say al Qaeda operatives are known to be casing possible targets in Kenya and other East African nations. Homeland Security Department officials said that it is more likely that thieves and not al Qaeda are behind the vanished 727. "Yes, there is concern, and an ongoing search, but it is not one that could be described as a desperate search," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. U.S. spy satellites have snapped pictures of remote airstrips throughout Africa, starting with ones that are within half a fuel tank's distance from Luanda's "4 de Fevereiro" International Airport. The 28-year-old 727 had taken on 14,000 gallons of A-1 jet fuel shortly before it departed. U.S. Embassy personnel have fanned out across Africa to ask host aviation ministries for any sign of the aircraft. "They haven't seen hide nor hair of it," said one government official. "It's so odd." According to the private Airclaims airplane database, the 727's current owner is a Miami-based firm called Aerospace Sales & Leasing Co., which bought it in 2001 after it was flown by American Airlines for decades. =20=20=20=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 SF Chronicle