You’d kind of hope that people would keep better track of their airplanes:

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 from the cockpit, even after the plane rumbled to a takeoff 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.

The guy suspected of stealing the thing can’t be found. His name is Benjamin Padilla (remember the suspected dirty bomber Jose Padilla?), and he was thought to be travelling to Africa on behalf of the company that bought the plane from American Airlines. This wouldn’t sound so sinister if it weren’t for this story:

An Ohio truck driver, reportedly part of a plot to bring down New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, has agreed to plead guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday.

Ashcroft said Iyman Faris “appeared to be a hard-working truck driver” but traveled to Pakistan, met with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and “joined al Qaeda’s jihad against America.”

So PLEASE, keep your jumbo jets locked up if you’re going to leave them out on the runway!