On 25 May 2003, a Boeing 727-223 airliner, registered as N844AA, was stolen at Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in Luanda, Angola,[1] prompting a worldwide search by law enforcement intelligence agencies in the United States.

[1] Padilla's sister, Benita Padilla-Kirkland, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2004 that her family suspected that he had been flying the aircraft and feared that he subsequently crashed somewhere in Africa or was being held against his will,[12] a theory shared by Aerospace Sales & Leasing president Maury Joseph, who had examined the plane two weeks before its disappearance.

However, U.S. authorities suspected that Joseph's history of accounting fraud played a part, believing that the plane's theft was either caused by a business feud or resulted from a scam.

[7] In July 2003, a possible sighting of the missing aircraft was reported in Conakry, Guinea,[13][14][15] but was conclusively dismissed by the U.S. State Department.

[16] An extensive article published in Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine in September 2010 was unable to draw any conclusions on the fate of the aircraft, despite research and interviews with persons knowledgeable of details surrounding the disappearance.