When al-Qaeda was moving into the Sudan in 1993, bin Laden asked al-Ridi, then living in Texas, to buy a light aircraft to ferry FIM-92 Stinger missiles and other materiel the group had acquired in Afghanistan. With $250,000, al-Ridi purchased a 1960s Sabre-40 jet from the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Arizona.[1]
Since the plane had a range of only 1,500 miles, al-Ridi was forced to make a seven-leg journey to deliver the plane, flying to Sault Sainte Marie, then to Frobisher Bay where -65 weather cracked a windshield and burst the hydraulics, causing him to lose a week repairing the aircraft. Finally he embarked to Iceland, through Europe and finally arriving in Cairo, before embarking on the final leg of his trip.[1]
A year and a half after delivering the plane, al-Ridi was called back to Khartoum, where he met with Ihab Ali Nawawi, and was informed that improper maintenance made the plane inoperable. Wadi el-Hage requested that the pair fix the aircraft, and then take it back to Cairo to re-sell it.[3]
The pair of them tried to repair the plane, its tires had melted to the runway and its engines were filled with sand. The brakes failed after a test flight with both men flying, and the plane crashed into a sand dune.[3]
The event attracted public attention, since the plane was unique in being a private aircraft at Khartoum International Airport and known to belong to Osama bin Laden. Worried that the Egyptian Mukhabarat would learn of his whereabouts, al-Ridi fled the Sudan.[3]