Part 53, page 108

Transcript

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

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

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

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Light plane a hijacker link?

By DARYL LEMBKE Los Angeles Times

WOODLAND, Cowlitz County — A light plane swept in out of the stormy night and circled over a crude airstrip in the hills 10 miles east of here.

The weather was rainy and windy—no fit night for a joy-riding pilot to be landing on the bumpy, unlighted hilltop airstrip near a wooded ravine.

Yet some nearby residents say that a small plane did land at a little after 8 p. m. November 24, at the same time and in the same area where a hijacker is believed to have parachuted from an airliner with $200,000 in $20 bills.

THE ACCOUNTS of the strange plane could explain how the hijacker escaped a three-day manhunt, or at least how he had planned to escape if he survived the parachute jump.

He could have had an accomplice who flew in and waited for him, or there could have been a third party in a car who picked him up and brought him to the plane.

Adding credence to this theory is the fact that someone in a car apparently rendezvous­ed with a pilot at another, nearby airstrip the night before the hijacking and went for what could have been a pre-hijack scouting flight in equally bad weather.

Those who say they saw the light plane on the night of the hijacking have been questioned several times by F. B. I. agents, who also combed the wooded ravine near the airstrip during the manhunt last weekend. (The F. B. I. in Seattle refused comment today on the significance of the reports about the small plane. Sheriff's officers referred all inquiries to the F. B. I.)

THE AIRSTRIP is on property owned by the McClellan family. Mr and Mrs. Robert M. McClellan, Jr., live in a new house at the south end of the airstrip. McClennan formerly owned a plane but sold it. His parents live in an older house a little farther from the landing field.

A flight recorder in the commandeered Northwest Orient 727 indicated that the hijacker opened the rear door of the plane at 8:13 p. m. Because of a slight lurch of the plane, it was deduced that he made the jump from the lowered rear steps two or three minutes later.

Mr. and Mrs. Emil Neiger, who live just down the road from the McClellan airstrip, said a plane had been circling the landing area most of the afternoon.

"We were gone for a while and came home about 8 o'clock," said Mrs. Neiger. "I was washing the dishes when both of us saw this plane swoop down low. We thought it was going to land and it put its landing lights on. Then we thought it took off again."

TWO MILES DOWN the road to the west, Mrs. Frank Distefano saw something that made an impression on her.

"I was home alone when I saw a plane out the back window about 8:30," said Mrs. Distefano. "It flew over twice, very low, and it had a big red light on the tail. It seemed bigger than a light plane. It was raining and the wind was blowing. I thought, 'what's he doing out here this time of night?' It was weird to me, because we don't see many planes at night here."

Mrs. Melvin Andersen, who resides just across the road from the north end of the McClellan landing strip

said she heard a plane land there and saw lights indicating that it was turning around.

"He was parked an hour or so and then it left," she said.

"I doubt if it was connected to the hijacker. The McClellans probably had a visitor. They have friends who fly."

But the McClellans insist they had no visitor drop in that night.

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

p. A9 Seattle Times Seattle, Wash.

Date: 12/3/71 Edition: Final Author: Daryl Lembke Editor: Henry McLeod Title: UNSUB; aka Dan Cooper; Northwest Airlines Fl.305, Portland to Seattle, 11/24/71 orCAA — HIJACKING;EXT Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle

☐ Being Investigated

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DB Cooper-22446