He looked at across the aircraft and he saw November 844 Alpha Alpha still visible on the back end of the airplane because of differential corrosion rates. In other words, the paint was all

gone. The windows were all gone. But you could still see the inn number. So I started making

a number of calls into the DRC and it just got stranger and stranger and

stranger. I got told I don't know how many times if that I went to to anywhere in Africa and was asking the

questions I was asking that I would not be going home that I would be one of those guys

that for some reason falls out of an airplane

somewhere out over the jungle. I'm Andrew Idon and from Podcaste,

I'm Andrew Idon and from Podcast One

This is Lost In, a show about people who go missing under strange circumstances.

Last week I told you the story of Ben Padilla,

a flight engineer for a Boeing 727 that took off from Angola's capital city of Luanda with Ben on board and was never

seen again.

Today we'll dive into first-person accounts of the aftermath and what might have happened to N844 AA. The story goes that at one somehow or another they wind up on the airfield on the runway

allegedly going to do this full power run-up but instead of just doing the run-up they put the

power to it the brakes come off and the airplane goes roaring down the runway

takes off into the sunset, basically never seen again.

By May 2003, the Angolan Civil War had been over for about a year.

But its devastation on the country was still painfully evident.

Roads and other infrastructure were in shambles, plus various rebel factions fought for power.

The Boeing 727 identified as N844 double A

was almost emblematic of all the destruction around it.

The plane had been purchased by a man named Keith Irwin to transport fuel to and from

...