VAN SUSTEREN: Tonight, the FBI is seeking your help in finding a missing Miami pilot who disappeared with a 727 jet in Angola almost a year ago.

Joe and Benita Padilla are the brother and sister of missing pilot Ben Padilla. They're joining us from Pensacola, Florida.

Joe, any information at all? I know that a plane did crash in Africa on Christmas Day. It was a 727. Have you spoken to the FBI about that plane?

JOE PADILLA, BROTHER IS MISSING: Yes, the FBI called me last Tuesday to -- and told me that they had gotten confirmation that it was not the same plane that my brother was hijacked on.

VAN SUSTEREN: Benita, do you have -- go ahead, Joe. I'm sorry.

JOE PADILLA: Well, I was going to say it's just like your producer called me today, that you all have a call into the FBI, and you haven't heard back from them. You're not going to. They won't confirm or deny any story, just like the plane that was spotted in Guinea months ago. That wasn't the same plane. That was confirmed to me by the State Department, but they will not put a press release out stating that it was the same plane.

VAN SUSTEREN: Benita, what do you think is going on here? Where's your brother, and why don't you know?

BENITA PADILLA, BROTHER IS MISSING: My brother has been missing for 44 weeks now. In eight more weeks, it will be a full year that we have not heard anything about him.

And what has happened is my brother has been hijacked, and he is either dead or he's being held captive, and we know that, based on the different information that we've received from private citizens within the airline industry, private investigators, and a lot of different people that -- outside the government are telling us what type of situations happen over there.

We -- you know, we don't feel very positive about his outcome. He's absolutely not an accomplice to any type of wrongdoing. He is definitely a victim.

VAN SUSTEREN: Joe, what's your theory on -- where is your brother? What's happened to him?

JOE PADILLA: Well, I'll tell you something. Bin Laden is way up the ladder on terrorists.  There is another name that I haven't heard mentioned on any news media programs, Victor Bout. Now this guy is right up above bin Laden on terrorist links, and there has been reports that they believe that Victor Bout is behind the disappearance of this plane. There's several different scenarios.

VAN SUSTEREN: And with that -- and with that, I'm sorry, Joe and Benita. That's all the time we have. I appreciate you joining us. Maybe we'll get some good news sometime. Thank you for being with us tonight.