I am Joseph B. Padilla, SR. I live in Pensacola, Florida – U.S.A. I am the Brother of Ben Charles Padilla Jr. He is suspected to be the Pilot of the Missing Boeing 727 Plane that left the Airport in Angola on May 25 2003. I am tring to reach news organizations to help me locate anyone that has seen or heard anything about this missing plane or my brother.

I appeared on ABC’s Good Morning Amercia with my Sister Benita Padilla-Kirkland on June 19 2003 in hopes to get the story out and to locate my brother. We both also appeared on CNN’s Morning show, American Morning, on June 24 2003.

Here is what I have so far about the story.

I thought that the Boeing 727 Plane had been sitting there in Angola for 14 months unattended to and not maintained. Now, I have found out that My Brother, Ben Charles Padilla, Jr. had been in Angola for 2 months overseeing a crew of aircraft mechanics re-working the plane from one end to the other.A B-Check was done and it was found to be fine.

I talked to the owner of the plane, Mr. Maury Joseph, which is also the owner of Aerospace Sales and Leasing in South Florida. I too live in Florida, in Pensacola, and my brother too was born and raised here.

Maury Joseph told me that he was there in Angola two weeks before the disappearance to see how things were going with the re-build of the 727 and also talked to my brother 2 days before the plane became missing and he had sent my brother $43,000.00 for him to pay the fees to the airport there in Angola. My brother paid the airport and faxed Maury Joseph the reciept, This is what Maury Joseph told me during a two and a half hour phone conversation.

My brother was also in charge of the hiring of a pilot and co- pilot. He was to be the Flight Engineer for the flight out of Angola for the repossession of the Boeing 727 plane. My brother is not licensed to fly a 727 and never has flown an aircraft this large.

He is a Licensed Aircraft Mechanic, Flight Engineer, and Pilot of smaller airplanes.

I was told that he took the plane out to the end of the runway and ran the engines up to check to see how they performed.I feel that when my brother was checking the engines, someone was on the plane and hijacked him. My brother isn’t a criminal nor has never done any wrong doings. Maury Joseph told me that he trusts my brother and doesn’t believe the reports of my brother stealing the plane. Maury Joseph also told me that he had talked to the Airport there in Angola and had found out that the control tower had radioed the 727 and told them as they were headed out to the runway to take off, that they didn’t have clearance nor permission to take off and the tower never recieved a response from the 727.

I talked to my brother back in either Jan. or Feb. and we talked about the Sept. 11 2001 ordeal and he himself told me that if this sort of thing ever happend to him, that he would down the plane in a New York Second.

So, with that said I really believe my brother was hijacked and taken prisoner and held against his will and possibly was killed.

My mother had a heart attack on Mothers day and my brother was e-mailed about this and he responded to the e- mail he recieved from another brother of ours and told him that he would contact us as soon as he could and we haven’t heard anything from him. So, that tells me that something isn’t right since he would of contacted the family about our mother.

I have talked to the FBI and State Department in Washington, D.C. and all they are willing to tell me is that they have not found my brother nor the plane. So, I am tring to search for any information that I can get thru news organizations.I find alot of stories on the internet and try to get any of the news organizations to run this story. Our family has already lost 2 siblings and can not bear to lose another one. I would appreciate any help you can give me. If you need any additional information, Please don’t hesitate to contact me.

A picture of Ben Padilla is posted with the news article introducing this insight story.

Thank you so much for your time. Joseph B. Padilla, SR.

If you have any information for the Padillas, send it to whitley@strieber.com. It will be forwarded to Mr. Padilla.

NOTE: This Insight, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.