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July 08, 2003
Missing Plane
Regular readers will remember the "Case of the Missing Plane" (covered on Slumbering Pierrot). For those who are new to the story, the original post appears below.
One faithful reader (thanks Ben) sent an email with the following information (presumably from an on-line paper) as a followup. It was a bit long to add as a comment so I have included it here as an article:
Mystery Boeing briefly resurfaces after disappearance
A Boeing 727, whose sudden disappearance in Angola in May unnerved US intelligence agencies, reappeared last week in the Guinean capital Conakry before vanishing once again, British newspaper The Guardian reports.
Washington has been working with African governments in the past month in a frantic bid to hunt down the cargo plane, amid fears the aircraft could be used by terrorists in a repeat of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
...
The plane, which was converted into a fuel tanker, is owned by a member of West Africa's Lebanese business community and was being used to carry goods between Beirut and Conakry, said Mr Strother [Ed: the pilot who spotted the plane] The 28-year-old jetliner was stolen from under the noses of the control tower at the airport in the Angolan capital Luanda on May 25 and until now had not been sighted. It had been parked at the airport for 14 months.
While US officials are concerned the plane could have been stolen by terrorists, the most likely scenario is that the aircraft was stolen as part of a business dispute or financial scam, said a western diplomat in Sierra Leone, quoted by The Guardian.
And here was me thinking that the scams were all in Nigeria :-)
[Original Story: Dateline = Thursday, June 26, 2003]
Asset Audit
Boss: Hey Mike, come in here.
Mike: Yes boss.
Boss: Mike this is Stan from Audit. He's checking asset numbers and can't find s
ome stuff.
Stan: Yeah. Looking for .... (checks clipboard) .... two boxes of pencils.
Mike: Dunno, didya look in the stationary cupboard?
Stan: Yeah.
Boss: Maybe they've been used.
Stan: That would put you over the company average for pencil consumption. Have to take it out of your budget.
Boss: OK. What else.
Stan: Ummmm .... one PC-XT with full height floppy and green screen. Book value $12,452.
Mike: You're kidding. That machine was bought back in the 80s and is now a boat anchor.
Stan: Destroying company property is an offence!
Mike: Actually it is propping open the computer room door because the air-con doesn't work.
Boss: Don't we write stuff like that off.
Stan: You might be right, maybe they forgot to depreciate it. I'll get onto that.
Boss: Anything else.
Stan: Nope. Everythings fine .... (starts to leave)
Mike: (To Boss) Phew. That went well.
Stan: (Turning around) Just one other thing, either of you know where the aeroplane went?
Mike: Huh? Like a model or something?
Stan: No the real thing. 747. Bigger than a football field. Uses a runway and thousands of litres of fuel. We seem to have lost it somewhere.
Boss: Not around here. Where would we keep it.
Stan: Oh well, just a thought. (leaves room)
(Dramatic pause)
Mike: I told you they'd notice it eventually.
Boss: Yeah but it took them nine months and the cheques have cleared already.
Mike: Nice of that fellow to add a bonus for prompt delivery.
Boss: What was his name again?
Mike: Mr Ben Handle or was it Mr Ben Chopper, some sort of kitchen implement.
Boss: I remember, Mr Ben Ladle.
(Seriously, how could anyone lose an aeroplane?)
Posted by Ozguru at July 8, 2003 02:07 PM
