Part 1, page 34

Transcript

The scan is the source; the transcript is machine-generated from it.

along the road to Woodland, went into a restaurant and had a ham and cheese sandwich and a piece of apple pie, while he waited for the Greyhound Bus. He had already purchased a ticket, to Portland, for 90 cents, and had a plane ticket from Portland to Seattle as well.

On the practice flights, he had used several aliases, including Montgomery and Wright. For the big trip, he chose the name D.B. Cooper.

It was a little satire, he said. He had worked at Boeing where noise was always a problem. So he chose the word decibels, and took the letter "D" from it. And what, he said, would make more noise than a lot of decibels in a barrel? Thus "B." And who makes barrels? A "cooper". Thus, D.B. Cooper, just the kind of name a methodical-minded engineer would choose.

When the bus reached Portland, at about 1:45 p.m., Cooper caught a taxi to the airport, arriving at about 2:15. The flight was scheduled to leave at 2:40 p.m. Cooper strolled around the terminal to kill time, then walked directly to the gate, carrying his briefcase. He watched as the check-in line formed, apprehensive for fear federal agents would be at the gate searching hand luggage. There were no such agents present, so Cooper tagged along at the end of the line, so he could get a seat at the back

---

of the plane. Had there been air marshals on board, which was happening on some flights, he planned just to sit tight and take a normal flight to Seattle. No marshals were on board, however, so Cooper took a seat in the extreme left rear of the plane and just waited.

"I was still safe. I still had the note. I still had the option just to take a ride. But I knew this was the beginning. Right here. All the work that had gone on before, that was just an accessory. Because nobody knew what I was doing. And I wasn't doing wrong to anybody.

"Odd as it may seem, I had prepared for this so long that when it actually took place, it was just like having a dress rehearsal," Cooper said.

The Crucial Flight

Cooper avoided any weapons—he said he dislikes guns—and the way his plan was to go the only person who would even see his "bomb" would be the stewardess. And she would be "scared to death, and wouldn't know a real bomb from anything at all. I could have made it out of paper and she wouldn't have known any difference."

"So, what was the worst that could happen? They could apprehend me. Or, if I got as far as putting the plan into motion, and left the plane with a chute I wasn't familiar with, then the chute

---

might not open. But other than me, nobody was endangered at any time," Cooper said.

The crucial flight was about six minutes late leaving. When it was about 10 minutes out of Portland, the stewardess, taking orders for drinks, had worked her way back to Cooper's seat. When she asked him what he wanted to drink, Cooper reached inside his jacket and handed her the note. It was typewritten on plain white paper, and the message was plain: "I have a bomb in this briefcase. I am hijacking this plane."

The stewardess's eyes widened. "Surprised?" Cooper said. "Just follow my instructions. Exactly! And everything will be fine and no one will be any wiser. Just report this to your captain."

That was the substance, if not the verbatim words, of the conversation. For the next two and a half hours, Cooper and the stewardess were seatmates. He kept her beside him and used her as a courier to take instructions to the captain. When the plane reached Seattle and began circling, Cooper instructed her to go forward and tell the captain "to advise Seatac (Seattle-Tacoma Airport) and Northwest to procure $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes, and have them at the plane."

While the plane circled, Cooper and the stewardess chatted. "She told me

---

she was from Minnesota, so we talked briefly about Minnesota and how did she like flying and this sort of thing. But actually, the atmosphere wasn't too conducive to idle conversation. Because I was very keen. I had to be very alert. I didn't want to get lost in conversation.

The captain informed the passengers there was a minor mechanical problem. While the FBI was rounding up the money and parachutes, Cooper sent word that when the plane landed he wanted it parked away from the terminal, in a well-lighted area so he could see out the windows and protect himself from possible ambush. When that was done, and the money and parachutes were delivered to the plane by courier, a bus came out, and everyone deplaned except one stewardess. She was vital to Cooper's plan and was involved in his ordering of four parachutes.

The Order for Two

No one had pulled this kind of skyjacking before, so Cooper had had some careful planning to do. "The one thing I had to watch very carefully was the chutes. I decided to order two complete sets. Why? Because if they thought I was going out of that plane alone, I wouldn't have given you a plugged nickel for my chances. Because they wouldn't care if I dropped out and went straight

---

n4NMT∪N01 ∞COO4NMT∪N01 ∞OO4NMT∪N01 ∞OO0HNMT∪N01 ∞OO0HNMT∪N [continues]