Ben Charles Padilla
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Ben Charles Padilla (born 1952, last confirmed contact May 25, 2003) is a small-aircraft pilot and a jet-aircraft mechanic, who disappeared while in-flight aboard a Boeing 727 which took off from Luanda, Angola without permission. Padilla resided in Pensacola, Florida.
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[edit] Disappearance
He was in Angola because an aircraft leasing company had sent him there to participate as an in-flight mechanic during a ferry flight of a Boeing 727 aircraft to the company's headquarters. Unexpectedly, the plane took off without permission from Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, in Luanda, and Padilla has not been seen since. His disappearance sparked many rumors, most of them tying it with terrorism. It also caused a world-wide search by both the FBI and the CIA. Padilla is not believed to have had any previous contacts with the people who flew the airplane off.
The aircraft was seen to be swaying from side to side down the taxiways and indeed along the runway as the aircraft took off, this led to theories - after it was reported a black cleaner had been seen to board (but not deboarding) - that Padilla was struggling with this man for control over the aircraft and eventually he was overpowered.
[edit] Theories, rumors, and unconfirmed reports
After the crash of UTA Flight 141, on December 25, 2003, rumors spread that the jet-liner used for that flight could, in fact, be the aircraft that Padilla was supposed to be flying in when his (and the plane's) mysterious disappearance occurred. The rumor turned out to be unfounded.
On January 6, 2004, his siblings declared on television that they have received several calls from around the world offering tips to the whereabouts of the jet-liner, which used to fly for American Airlines with the registration N844AA, one of them placing it in Lebanon. However, none of the calls have disclosed sightings of Padilla himself.
[edit] In popular culture
This incident appears to be part of the inspiration and background for the 2004 W.E.B. Griffin novel By Order of the President, in which a Boeing 727 is stolen from the same airport in Luanda on 25 May 2005, similarly with one crew aboard and ultimately going missing.
