An aged Boeing 727 stolen in May from a sleepy African airport could have been rigged as the ultimate flying bomb before it disappeared, authorities say. The theft, in a post-Sept. 11 world, has sparked a continent-wide hunt for the missing jetliner. And now, with U.S. President George W. Bush making a swing through Africa, authorities are keeping a nervous eye on the skies. Bush flies back to Washington this weekend after stops today in Uganda and Nigeria. “We don’t have any reliable assessments about what this portends, what it could be, who may be behind it,” said White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer. “But it is an issue that is being worked on.” While the theft may be as simple as an ownership dispute, officials are especially concerned because the 727, which can carry up to 190 passengers, has been retrofitted as a fuel tanker, ostensibly to ferry aviation fuel into remote African air strips. Full Story
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