Missing African Plane N9784L is a Small Prop Plane, not a Boeing 737, nothing like MH370

[Mick West]

With the continued interest in MH370, any missing plane story will make the news. A small plane with a single pilot and no passengers recently went missing in a mountainous jungle region of Cameroon, Africa.

The actual missing plane was being delivered to African Parks, and they report it as being a Cessna 172, and provide a photo of the plane and pilot en-route.
http://www.african-parks.org/Blog_127_African Parks Pilot and Plane Missing in Cameroon .html


The African press reported that the plane was N9784L, registration docs show this to be a Beechcraft A24R, is a slightly larger but still small small single engine prop plane, that looks like:


This is a probably tragic story of small plane crashing in the wilderness, but unfortunately the use of stock images of "a plane" made this story look much more significant than it actually is.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201406250004.html

They illustrate the story with this stock image of a Boeing 737.

The Nigerian Tribune (Nigeria's Most Informative Newspaper), has the registration number, but still gets it totally wrong, describing the plane as "a United States Jet", and using a different photo of a 737
http://www.tribune.com.ng/news/top-...plane-flying-from-nigeria-to-gabon-disappears


Another story has a different take:
http://therainbow.com.ng/tabloid/us-plane-flying-from-nigeria-to-gabon-missing/

A single engine citation aircraft has been declared missing by Nigerian and Cameroonian aviation authorities .

The American registered aircraft, owned by US company Global Aviation, and marked with registration number N9784L, reportedly departed Kano at 6.12 am local time on Tuesday June 24, 2014 and was estimated to land in Doula , Cameroon at 11.04 am local time . It was en route Libreville in Gabon
According to a source, the aircraft had contact with air traffic controllers in Doula at 11.16 am local time.
The single engine aircraft has only the pilot on board.

Content from external source

With this photo of a Cessna 525 CitationJet, with two engines (there are no single engine Citations)


Some image juxtaposition are even more dramatic:

http://www.thecable.ng/breaking-gabon-bound-nigerian-plane-missing/


http://sirkenayo.net/breaking-news-plane-flying-from-nigeria-to-gabon-missing/


And some take it to extremes:
http://nigeriana.org/blog/74706.html

That's an Antonov-225 Mriya, the world's largest plane.

And today the African press continue to use random plane photos.

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=173870

 

[Jason]

I don't know if this is deemed off topic, but I was trying to do a search to see how many small planes go missing every year because it seems obvious that this would occur at a much higher rate than commercial airliners disappearing.

http://www.ibtimes.com/mysteriously...ften-do-planes-go-missing-infographic-1561598

 

[Mick West]

Terrible infographic, seems like just a random collection from twenty minutes Googling, and most of the planes went missing in WWII.

Here's another list is missing planes, just in California:
http://www.aircraftwrecks.com/missing.htm

 

[Jason]

Terrible infographic, seems like just a random collection from twenty minutes Googling, and most of the planes went missing in WWII.

Here's another list is missing planes, just in California:
http://www.aircraftwrecks.com/missing.htm

I agree, I was looking for small planes but that graphic came up and I was somewhat amazed by it. But we can see there are plenty of planes that have gone missing throughout history, even large jets.

 

[ConspiracyAtheist]

Yes many planes have gone missing, but what makes this case special is the level of sophistication of not only the B777 avionics and technology, but also that of todays radar systems both civil and military

 

[Mick West]

Yes many planes have gone missing, but what makes this case special is the level of sophistication of not only the B777 avionics and technology, but also that of todays radar systems both civil and military

This thread is not about MH370.

 

[ConspiracyAtheist]

The only logical explanation to any of this is that MH370 landed in Diego Garcia where it was greeted by the Israelis, who switched MH370 with the twin plane they were holding in Tel Aviv. MH370 was flown out and ditched in the South Indian Ocean, leaving chemical and biological chemtrails along the way. The Twin plane was then flown to Pakistan where it was completely taken apart and put back together as a much smaller 4-seat jet. It refueled, flew to Nigeria, leaving more chemtrails along the way, where it was handed over to Adam Lanza who, under the protection and guidance of the Mossad and the CIA, flew the plane to HAARP as a false flag operation intended to strengthen the Illuminati and New World Order.

 

[ConspiracyAtheist]

Mick, I dare you to try and debunk that.

 

[Pete Tar]

Tragedy aside, I find the increasingly wrong photos used as illustration for this story hilarious.

 

[WeedWhacker]

The only logical explanation to any of this is that MH370 landed in Diego Garcia where it was greeted by the Israelis, who switched MH370 with the twin plane they were holding in Tel Aviv. MH370 was flown out and ditched in the South Indian Ocean, leaving chemical and biological chemtrails along the way. The Twin plane was then flown to Pakistan where it was completely taken apart and put back together as a much smaller 4-seat jet. It refueled, flew to Nigeria, leaving more chemtrails along the way, where it was handed over to Adam Lanza who, under the protection and guidance of the Mossad and the CIA, flew the plane to HAARP as a false flag operation intended to strengthen the Illuminati and New World Order.

Satire....it is quite difficult to pull off, in print...isn't it?

(BUT....obvious is obvious, even IF some will read it and not realize the humour).

 

[Efftup]

I was disappointed no Royal lizards were involved in the story.

 

[vooke]

Why would they use such different images? Ignorance or just MH370 hangovers?

 

[Pete Tar]

There's a surprising amount of news stories with 'picture for illustration purposes only' or 'file photo'.
It's probably in the small print somewhere.

 

[Debillw3]

There's a surprising amount of news stories with 'picture for illustration purposes only' or 'file photo'.
It's probably in the small print somewhere.

Even so, all that means is that the pictured plane is not the exact, specific one being discussed. It's not a free license to use any picture of anything for the sake of having a picture next to the story, even if the article says that it's a smaller, four seater (as most of these seem to do).

I'd give the outlet using the Cessna a pass, because they actually made an effort to choose a picture that, to my understanding, at least, somewhat closely depicts the relative size and shape of the craft we're discussing.

But the others are examples of, at best, lazy reporters.

 

[Mick West]

Boston.com reports (from the AP) the plane as a Cessna 172, an even smaller plane than the Beechcraft that N9784L is registered as
http://www.boston.com/news/world/af...ssing-pilot/l605TPfil3nRxbS4B21KxN/story.html

Fitzpatrick, who is from Chelan in Washington state, was flying alone, according to African Parks. It said Cameroon and U.S. authorities were helping to search for the plane, but their efforts were hampered by the mountainous, heavily forested terrain.

The Cessna 172 was to be used for anti-poaching surveillance and was flown from the United States to Senegal, where Fitzpatrick picked it up last week. His final destination was to be Congo; Fitzpatrick is employed at the Odzala-Kokoua National Park, which is run by African Parks.

Content from external source

Okay, here's the actual plane, and the missing pilot:
http://www.african-parks.org/Blog_127_African Parks Pilot and Plane Missing in Cameroon .html


Also Aviation Safety Network reports it as a 172 (probably based on the AP report)
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=167483

 

[Efftup]

guessing their sloppiness might have been a typo I googled N9874L and discovered THAT is a Cessna 172P that was deregistered in 1990. Would it be deregistered when sold from the USA to an African company?

 

[Mike S]

N9748L

 

[Efftup]

there you go, I knew we;d get there