Shortly before sunset on 25 May 2003, the air traffic control crew at Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in Angola they noticed something very strange. A Boeing 727-223, numbered N844AA, was driving erratically on one of the runways. No attempt was made to contact the tower and the aircraft flew southwest over the Atlantic Ocean with all the lights off. The plane was silver, with red, white and blue stripes, and was recently filled with 14,000 gallons of fuel, enough to travel up to 1,500 miles.
An American Certified Aircraft Engineer, Flight Engineer and Private Pilot named Ben Charles Padilla was in Angola a little earlier to oversee the team renovating the old Boeing 727. The work was completed successfully and the plane was ready to travel on May 26. 2003, on a scheduled flight.
Padilla and John Michel Mutantou, an engineer from the Republic of Congo, were missing at the same time, and the last time anyone saw them was at airplane. The theory that Pandila “stole” it is quite strange, as it takes a crew of at least three people to fly a 727 and Pandila was not suitable to fly this type of aircraft.
As the incident unfolded shortly after the shocking 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI, the CIA, and the US Department of State and Homeland Security investigated the case and found nothing.
It seems that the 844AA has literally disappeared from the radar. Some believe it was shot down by the Angolan Air Force over the Atlantic Ocean, while others claim it crashed shortly after takeoff. Either way, no wreckage has ever been found on land or at sea and to date, the bodies of the occupants have not been recovered.
The time of disappearance of the aircraft, the eve of the first scheduled flight his, however, reports planeandpilotmag.com could not be accidental. The most likely conclusion is that Padilla either stole it for his own financial gain or did so on the orders of Joseph, the owner of the aircraft. According to a pilot from Luanda (capital of Angola), the 844AA appeared to be heading north that night and landing around Kinshasa in the Congo.
Without any evidence of an accident that has ever been found, it is entirely possible that Padilla achieved his goal by selling the aircraft for spare parts and disappearing again overnight.
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