Yes it’s an incredibly strange and interesting story indeed, with so many different theories as to what happened and where the aircraft is now – some reports say it was stolen for criminal activity, some say it was taken away after money was not paid and some speculate it was stolen with the intention of using it for terrorist activities.

Amongst the stories of the aircraft being spotted as 3X-GOM on June 28 2003 in Conakry, the capital of Guinea by Canadian pilot Bob Strother (as reported by The Guardian’s correspondant in Freetown, James Astill on Monday July 7, 2003) Airliner World also reported on the story, claiming that the a/c had been tracked down somewhere, and is now flying as 5N-BGQ for AfriJet!

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=708373

However that is not the end of it by a long way. I’m not even sure if that information was confirmed or not – If anyone has the edition it was in please expand on that if you can!

And of course Ben Padilla is still missing – he was the American engineer apparently sent out to Africa to oversee the refurbishment of the aircraft. He hasn’t been seen since the aircraft mysteriosly took off from Luanda on May 25th 2003.

For Padilla’s family, several false alarms have brought only upset and frustration. Fresh hopes of discovering what happened were renewed when a chartered Boeing 727 crashed after take off in the west African nation of Benin, killing 111. However it turned out there had been a mixup in registration numbers.

The family’s hopes rose again when they got a tip from a private investigator that a pilot in Fargo, N.D., had been overhead saying he knew an aircraft mechanic who had seen the missing 727 in a hangar in Beirut, Lebanon. The FBI tracked down the pilot, but “from what I understand, that led to a dead end,” said Ben Padilla’s brother.

A real mystery – Nobody seems to have a definate answer as to what happened. There’s a lot of coverage on the story on the internet but none of it is conclusive, and a lot of the stories on different websites and from different sources seem to contradict each other with some saying the aircraft was found long ago and some saying it is still yet to be located.

I think it looks ok!

TF-ATT came into Filton a week or two ago to have that done at Air Livery.

Sadly, Peter Jennings lost his battle with cancer and died on Sunday 🙁

http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/Jennings/

Kev,

The RAF has retired all their Bulldogs. They were suceeded by the Grob Tutor.

I think private owners are allowed to keep the old reg. on the Bulldogs – I’ve seen a few private owned Bulldogs at RAF Colerne and they still have the RAF reg. Funny really, as the Tutors have G-B*** regs on them.

Joe

BY 767-200 G-BRIF LGW-VCE August 2001

Was a great flight! Absolutely loved it!

ok! I didn’t think they did but I was just checking.

It’ll be interesting to fly on a 737-200! I just hope there isn’t a last minute equipment change or anything!

I’ve seen plenty of advertising for the route around the Bristol region. There have been lots of ads in local newspapers, boards, on the radio and on buses and taxis. They even had a team of people in Bristol City Centre giving away Continental Airlines balloons, pencils, rubbers etc.

It also recieved a lot of press from the local TV stations (BBC Points West and ITV West). The local people living in the villages surrounding the airport and esp. under the flightpath most certainly know about it as they made a huge fuss about it! (Claiming they would have 747’s flying over the house waking them up at all hours!!!!) stupid people!

It would be shame if the pulled out on this route so soon. I think it’s got potential!