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| East/Subsaharan Africa | |
| As the Boeing turns: spotted in Conakray | |
| 2003-07-07 | |
| This week on As the Boeing Turns, A Boeing 727 cargo plane which caused panic among US intelligence agencies after mysteriously disappearing from Angola's main airport turned up last week in Guinea. The plane, which was feared to be in the hands of international terrorists, was spotted on June 28 in Conakry, Guinea's capital, by Bob Strother, a Canadian pilot. It had been resprayed and given the Guinean registration 3XGOM. But at least the last two letters of its former tail-number, N844AA, were still showing. The plane, which was recently converted into a fuel tanker, was said to be owned by a member of West Africa's Lebanese business community, and was being used to shuttle goods between Beirut and Conakry. "There's absolutely no doubt it's the same aircraft, the old registration is clearly visible," said Mr Strother by phone from Conakry. "Whoever owns it must have some important friends to get it re-registered in two days: going by the book, the whole process usually takes a couple of months." Western intelligence agencies were said to be scouring Africa's clear skies and mouldering runways for the missing tanker, fearing that it could easily be aimed at an American or British embassy on the continent. Yet an American official in the region said this was the first he had heard of the plane since its disappearance from Angola's capital, Luanda, on May 25. "People have been looking for this thing everywhere," the official said. "We've had reports that it crashed, that it was in South Africa or Nigeria, but nothing for sure, not like what you've just told me." The Guardian was able to furnish the American official with a photograph of the mystery plane, taken by Mr Strother. Immediately after the plane's disappearance, unnamed US intelligence sources told the Associated Press that it "mostly likely was taken for a criminal endeavour such as drug or weapons smuggling". But they had "not ruled out the possibility it was stolen for use in a terrorist attack". A US state department spokesman, Philip Reeker, said at the time: "There is no particular information suggesting that the disappearance of the aircraft is linked to terrorists or terrorism, but it's still something that obviously we would like to get to the bottom of." Airplanes, fuel tanks, exploding office towers, yep, we'd like to know more. A western diplomat in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, said it was more likely the plane had simply been snatched from Luanda because its owner was reluctant to pay year-long airport taxes, totalling around £30,000. "There's always a shady side to business around here," he said. "But as for the terrorism stuff, that sounds like a complete load of rubbish."
Maybe look in Beirut? | |
| Posted by:Steve White |