Re hijacker vanishing with $200,000 (AP wire story)
Document date 25 November 1971
Report a problem
Email this to [email protected]
Id: Cooper-Part-53:120-121
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-53:120-121 Document: Clipping re hijacker vanishing with $200,000 (AP wire story) Id: Cooper-Part-53:120-121 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A120-121 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
A person reads every report. Corrections are made by hand, to the data — titles, dates, names, which pages belong together — never to the scans, and they can take a while to appear.
FBI 164-81, Vault Part 53 pp. 120–121 (DB Cooper-22458–22459), News clipping, dated 25 Nov 1971 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A120-121
FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
---
VANISHES INTO THIN AIR Hijacker parachutes with $200,000
—AP Wirephoto JETLINER CREW . . . give details of hijacking
---
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
p.1 The Sun Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Date: 11/25/71 Edition: Vol. LXXXVI Author: #45 Editor: William T. Galt Title: UNSUB, aka Dan Cooper; Northwest Air- Lines Fl. 305, Portland Character: to Seattle, 11/2 or CAA-HIJACKING; EXT Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle ☐ Being Investigated
---
COPY SENT TO BUREAU
DB Cooper-22458
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A hi- jacker apparently parachuted to freedom from a comman- deered passenger jet after ex- torting $200,000 from North- west Airlines with a bomb threat, authorities say.
Two of four parachutes ob- tained by the middle-aged hi- jacker from airline officials in Seattle were missing when the plane landed here with four crewmen aboard, the FBI re- ported today.
"There's no way he could have got off in Reno," said Harold Campbell Jr., special agent in charge of FBI opera- tions in Nevada.
"We had the airport cov- ered."
Officials at McChord Air Force base near Tacoma re- fused to say whether the p[guess: air] lots of three planes that trailed the hijacked Boeing
---
727 airliner saw any para- chutes during the flight.
Authorities said the hijacker probably parachuted from the plane sometime after it left Seattle Wednesday night, but apparently there were no wit- esses to his escape.
Thirty-six passengers and two stewardesses had been let off the plane in Seattle.
Airline officials said the hi- jacker locked the remaining four crew members in the cockpit. after the plane took off again.
"He's in the back of the air- plane and everyone else is in front," Federal Aviation Ad- ministration supervisor Art Wibom said during the Seattle-to-Reno flight.
The plane made the run at 10,000 feet with its rear stair- well open so the hijacker could bail out if he chose. At
---
that altitude no oxygen was required.
"It would be a very safe drop," said John Wheeler, a Boeing Co. spokesman. "He'd be away from flaps and other engines and go straight down."
The FBI's Campbell said to his knowledge no hijacker had ever escaped by parachuting from a plane.
Law enforcement officers with dogs combed Reno Inter- national Airport and the sur- rounding area after the plane landed.
There was no sign of the hi- jacker, the money or any bomb.
A stewardess said the hi- jacker had cylinders which looked like dynamite and wires led to a briefcase he carried.
---
The hijacker, who officials say probably boarded the plane in Portland, Ore., took over the jetliner shortly be- fore it was to land in Seattle on a flight from Washington, D.C.
A stewardess said he hand- ed her a note, which said he was hijacking the aircraft, and ordered her to relay in- structions to officials on the ground that he wanted $200,- 000 and four parachutes deliv- ered to him when the plane landed.
He displayed the briefcase and cylinders to the steward- ess, officials said.
The passengers apparently were unaware a hijacking was under way.
"The crew just said some- thing might be wrong with the plane," Pat Minsch of Anchor- age, Alaska, said in Seattle.
---
"There's nothing unusual looking about him," said an- other passenger, Richard Sim- mons of Seattle, "He is mid- dleaged and was wearing dark glasses."
After the plane was refuelled and the money and para- chutes delivered by an airline employee, Flight 305 took off with three crewmen, one stewardess and the hijacker.
The pilot, William Scott, said the plane would have to stop in Reno, 500 miles from Seattle, for refuelling on a flight that airline officials said was headed for Mexico City.
But FBI spokesman Camp- bell later said the hijacker "gave no destination" for the crew to follow.
"We have no information on the man," Campbell told re- porters early today. He said
---
the crew offered a description of the hijacker but he did not elaborate.
Scott said the hijacker "treated us very courteous- ly."
"Because the rear door was open, the cabin area lost pres- sure and the temperature in the plane dropped to seven de- grees below zero," FAA offi- cials said.
The cabin lights were shut off on orders from the hijack- er, they said.
Other members of the hi- jacked crew were identified as Robert Tataczak, first offi- cer; Harold Andersen, flight engineer; and Tina Mucklow, stewardess. All were based in Minneapolis.
Campbell said a search for the hijacker would begin in the Portland area.
A passenger list made avail- able by the airline listed Mi- chael Cooper as among those getting off the plane.
---
DB Cooper-22459
Serials: SE 164-81