Hard facts from CNN

Posted on July 12, 2003 by Gene

I guess I have to give them credit – they’ve published a story about a missing 727 that most of the media seem to have ignored. I just wish their reporting wasn’t so sloppy.

The recent disappearance of a Boeing 727 along with a resurgence of terror activities near the Horn of Africa have spurred the United States to add new combat power to the region, the senior U.S. commander based in the area has said.

That 727 disappeared two months ago. I’d hardly call that recent.

The Horn of Africa sits across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, which is the homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

bin Laden’s homeland is Saudi Arabia, not Yemen.

U.S. officials are not sure what happened to the 727, but they say the possibility exists that the aircraft is in the hands of terrorists. Other reports have suggested the plane’s owner took it from the airport in a financial dispute.

How can it be that the greatest, most sophisticated military on Earth can’t locate a 727? (Of course, they can’t locate bin Laden or Hussein, either. I think we need to take a close look at our abilities.)

“We have the ability to identify it from other airplanes in the air,” Robeson said. He added that if it appears, the U.S. military “would not hesitate to shoot it down.”

Robeson noted that all 727s in the region fly on approved commercial air routes, so if this plane were to appear suddenly, it would be deemed a threat. He noted the continuing threat of an attack from aircraft in the region.
Um, when the plane took off unexpectedly and without authorization a couple months ago, was it not identified then? And one would assume that it flew a while then landed somewhere, did no one “identify it from other planes” during that time? So, a plane took off illegally and never landed anywhere?