This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A Production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these

amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the

Cabinet of Curiosities. Have you ever wondered what happens to a commercial airliner when it's retired from service?

Well, for those curious enough to ask, you'll find that there are a wide variety of jobs these planes can be pressed into after they're done ferry and passengers.

And not all of these jobs are legal. In fact, one infamous airliner, 844AA, ended up causing

an international incident.

Mori Joseph is a Florida-based CEO of an airline leasing company, and in February of 2002, he came into possession

of a Boeing 727, tail number, as I said, 844 AA, recently retired from American Airlines.

He was approached by a South African entrepreneur, Keith Irwin, who had been hired by a joint partnership

of airline interests in Africa, looking to make money transporting fuel by air to diamond

mines in Angola. A civil war had broken out in the country, and transporting fuel by car

had become too dangerous. Both Mori and Irwin had thick skins and were used

to conducting business in third world nations with these kind of problems. They also weren't

afraid of working with industries that some people might find distasteful, such as the diamond

trade. Mori sold Irwin the 747 for $1 million, but accepted a down payment of just

$125,000, with further installments to follow once the fuel shipments got underway.

Mori even sent a business associate with Irwin to Angola to make sure that things went

smoothly. But from the get-go, things were

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