FD-350 clipping, 'Stewardess Mistook Hijacker's Note' re Florence Schaffner

FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)

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Stewardess Mistook Hijacker's Note If WAS NO DINNER INVITATION

By KATHRYN BOARDMAN Staff Writer

A 23-year-old Northwest Airlines stewardess thought the note a passenger handed her Wednesday just out of Portland, Ore., was a mash note — or an invitation to dinner in Seattle.

So Florence Schaffner, one of the three stewardesses on the Boeing 727 jet, slipped it into her purse, smiled at the passenger and went on with her in-flight paper work.

"But he stared at me so hard I kept looking at him," Miss Schaffner said at a press conference Friday. "Then he told me that I had better read the note right away. I did and almost fainted. It was not a mash note. He said he was hijacking the plane.

"I sat down in the seat beside him and realized I had about 50 seconds to make up my mind whether I'd panic or play it as cool as he was. I decided not to panic," she said.

She then passed the note to Tina Mucklow, 22, who telephoned the cockpit to tell the captain that the plane had been hijacked. Miss Schaffner then got out her pen and wrote down the orders from the most daring hijacker in the history of aviation.

"He wanted $200,000," she said. "He wanted four parachutes — two front packs and two back packs. He wanted his directions followed with no fuss and he wanted no police at the Seattle-Tacoma [guess: a co-m a] airport, where we were to land."

Miss Schaffner took the orders to the cockpit and Tina, a girl with rosy cheeks and long blonde hair, sat down beside the unwelcome passenger.

From just outside of Portland — on the way to Seattle — until some six hours later, Tina sat near the hijacker in the plane.

But the three pilots in the cockpit never caught a glimpse of the man who commandeered their jet plane. All communication between the hijacker and the cockpit was through Tina.

"Tina was the contact with him," Capt. William Scott, 51, the 727 pilot, said at the press conference at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

"Three of us in the cock-pit talked it over and since Tina had established communication with him and he seemed to trust her we decided to work through her," Scott said.

The other two men are First Officer William Rataczak, 32, and second officer, Harold Anderson. The three men and Tina all live in Minneapolis suburbs.

The four who were with the hijacker the entire time of the ordeal and the two other stewardesses on the flight, Miss Schaffner and Miss Alice Hancock, sat down before a line-up of cameras and reporters to tell their story.

When it became necessary to stall to meet the demands of the hijacker before landing at Seattle, Scott said, the passengers were told that there was some difficulty and the jet was using up fuel.

After the plane landed, and the passengers and two stewardesses had safely deplaned, the $200,000 and

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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)

1 St. Paul Pioneer —Press St. Paul, Minn.

Date: Nov. 27, 1971 Edition: Morning Author: Kathryn Boardman Editor: Donald J. O'Grady Title:

Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: Minneapolis

☐ Being Investigated

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INDEXED 11/39/1971 b6

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DB Cooper-33789

the parachutes were going to leave the plane," brought to the plane. Rataczak said.

"The hijacker had speci- After the plane took off fied that I was to go out to from Seattle en route to meet the messenger bring- Reno, the hijacker told Tina ing the messenger chutes," to walk up to the cockpit, Tina said. "He told me that close the curtain there and he did not want the messen- stay there. He had beside ger coming close to the him the brief case with what plane. He had specified that he said was the bomb in it. he wanted the money in a "As we put down in Reno knapsack but it arrived in a I took hold of the micro- kind of laundry bag — phone," Capt. Scott said, which displeased him. But "and called out to him. We he took it." referred to him as 'Sir' all

The plane then had to be through the experience. I refueled. It was during that called him Sir and told him time that Capt. Scott said he I needed further directions. felt the most endangered. I got no answer, so I called "It seemed to be taking too again." long," he said. "The hijack- er got restless and we kept With that continuing si- getting messages from our lence Capt. Scott and his office which bothered him." crew got up, unlocked the door and looked around the Finally the plane took off curtain. The plane was in the configuration de- empty. manded by the hijacker, full flaps down at about 200 After the Reno stop the miles an hour. crew was flown back to Se- attle and then returned to The crew had a bad min- St. Paul late Thursday. ute when the hijacker or- They told their story to dered four chutes. "That Northwest Airline officials sounded to us like three pi- at a debriefing session be- lots and a passenger were fore they met the press.

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DB Cooper-33790