Family of AWOL Plane's Pilot in 'Anguish'

W A S H I N G T O N, June 19 -- The family of a man believed to have been piloting a Boeing 727 that mysteriously took off and disappeared from an Angolan runway last month today told of their anguish as international authorities fear the jetliner could be used for a terrorist act.

In a baffling aviation vanishing act, workers at Luanda Airport in Angola watched dumbfounded on May 25 as the Boeing 727 taxied down the runway and took off — without permission. The plane — which ABCNEWS has learned was refitted to haul diesel fuel tanks, making it a potential flying bomb — has not been seen since.

The man the U.S. government suspects of piloting the 727 is Benjamin Padilla — a U.S. citizen from Florida. Padilla, too, has vanished, and his family is worried.

"I am concerned that he might have been hijacked," Padilla's brother, Joseph, said in an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS.

"It's very painful," said Padilla's sister, Benita Kirkland Padilla. "The whole family is in anguish, not knowing what happened to our brother."

The last time the family heard from Padilla was on May 14, when Benita received an e-mail from her brother informing her that he was on his way to Africa and would get in touch with his ailing mother as soon as he returned home.

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But more than a month since their last communication, Padilla has not yet returned home. And with international authorities concerned that the missing jetliner could be used for terrorist purposes, the family maintains that he would never be involved in such a plan.

"Personally, I do not believe he has done anything criminal or terrorist-related," Benita told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America today.

U.S. Officials Stumped

The family believes Padilla, a licensed mechanic and pilot, flew to Angola on behalf of Aerospace Sales and Leasing, a Florida-based company that bought the 727 from American Airlines two years ago. The plane had not been moved for more than a year, and his family believes Padilla went to see whether it was fit to fly.