(FD-350): 'SW Washington timberlands scene of hunt for hijacker', The Oregonian

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THE OREGONIAN PORTLAND, OREGON

Date: 11/26/71, pg. 1 Edition: Author: Editor: Title:

Character: or Classification: Submitting Office:

[ ] Being Investigated

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SW Washington timberlands scene of hunt for hijacker

Police will continue Friday an air-night jump wearing a new, [illegible] and land search in the Lewis River main parachute and a reserve chute, area of Southwest Washington for a which had been sewed shut. brazen hijacker who apparently para- Left behind in the 727 was a second chuted Wednesday night from a jet untested back parachute and a func- airliner with $200,000 in ransom money tional reserve chute, officials at Reno, and a briefcase allegedly containing Nev., reported. explosives. The black-suited hijacker reportedly Clark County, Wash., sheriff's dep- boarded the "milk run" flight, which uties said the hijacker may have originated in Washington, D.C., in jumped from the commandeered Portland and took charge while en Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 jet at route to Seattle. 8:13 p.m. Wednesday into a rugged, At Seattle-Tacoma International Air- timbered five-mile-wide corridor be- port, he released 36 passengers and tween Ariel and View, southwest of two stewardesses in exchange for Woodland, Wash. $200,000 in cash and four parachutes. The search, directed by a team of He then ordered Pilot William Scott six FBI agents operating out of the to fly southward to Reno, with landing Woodland Police Department, was gear and flaps down at an altitude of scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. Friday. less than 10,000 feet. If the hijackers parachuted from the On takeoff, the plane climbed to 6,000 plane as officials believe, he made his feet, then to 7,000 feet at Kelso, Wash., and finally to 10,000 feet just north of Portland. If official estimates prove correct, he made his jump about 7,000 feet at 200 miles-per-hour into subzero tempera- tures, clouds and winds the U.S. Weather Service said ranged from 20 to 40 knots. The parachute backpack on which the hijacker depended was a new rig specially made for stunt fliers, not sky- divers, and had never been used. "Yep, that's my chute," said Earl Cossey, president of Seattle Sky Sports, when the parachute and harness were described to him. Both backpacks supplied the hijacker were made by Cossey, but owned by Norman Hayden, a stunt pilot at Ren- ton Aviation Co.

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Linn Emrick, a Sky Sports [guess: employee] supplied the emergency, or chest, par- achutes turned over to the hijacker.

According to both, Cossey and Em- rick, the hijacker could not have at- tached the reserve parachute to the main parachute harness.

Emrick said he accidentally gave of- ficials seeking the parachutes one good emergency chute and one practice chute which was sewed shut. The defective chute was missing from the aircraft when it landed in Reno 3½ hours after leaving Seattle.

Parachute experts in Seattle said it would have been difficult for the hi- jacker to jump encumbered by the $200,000 and the briefcase allegedly containing an explosive device a stew- ardess described.

Cossey said there was no way the hi- jacker could have held anything in his hands since jumping at that speed would throw him out of control.

However, the jump could have been made safely since the 727 is the only commercial airliner with a tail door which would permit a jumper to miss both engines and the tail section.

After the plane left Seattle, it flew south over Portland, Eugene and Med- ford, then to Red Bluff, Calif., where it turned east toward Reno.

A Northwest Airlines official said the slow flight was burning so much fuel it was initially believed it would have to land at Medford.

The FBI described the hijacker as "in his mid-40s," about 6-feet, 1 in[guess: ch], 175 pounds, dark hair and a slim build. He wore a black suit and dark glasses.

In Seattle, FBI officials said a com- posite drawing of the hijacker may be available Friday.

And in Las Vegas, an FBI source said the airliner had been dusted for fingerprints Thursday and they were en route to FBI headquarters in Wash- ington, D.C., for possible identification.