Part 53, page 119

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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Searchers to try again if weather lifts

The search for a white parachute and the man who wore it is scheduled to resume in Clark and Cowlitz Counties today after three days of trying to track down the Thanksgiving Eve jet hijacker.

Hopes were kindled briefly yesterday, then flickered, when a white object seen from the air was checked and found to be a plastic canopy left by fishermen or loggers.

Fog closed in and cut off the air-and-ground search about 3 p. m. yesterday.

J. Earl Milnes, special agent in charge of the Seattle office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said, "Search efforts will continue Sunday unless weather conditions make them impossible."

YESTERDAY'S search efforts zeroed in on a small wooded area east of Woodland, Cowlitz County — a three-by-five-mile area south of Merwin Lake.

The F. B. I. said aircraft would search the entire route from Seattle to Reno for the well-dressed, middle-aged hijacker who parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 Wednesday night with $200,000 ransom.

F. B. I. agents and deputy sheriffs have concentrated search efforts in the Woodland area because that was where the hijacker last communicated with the crew and where the plane's rear-exit stairs were lowered.

Milnes, however, has said the hijacker could be anywhere between there and Reno.

THE HIJACKER boarded the jet in Portland Wednesday, showed a stewardess a briefcase in which he said he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 ransom. He released the plane's 36 passengers and two stewardesses at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport in exchange for the ransom and two parachute assemblies, each consisting of a chest pack and back pack.

One stewardess and the three-man crew were ordered to take him to Mexico City with a first refueling stop in Reno. Shortly after take-off from the Seattle-Tacoma Airport the stewardess was ordered to the cockpit with the crew. When the plane arrived in Reno the man was gone. So was the money, two parachutes and the "bomb" briefcase. The crew expressed surprise that the hijacker wasn't aboard in Reno.

The plane passed over Portland, Medford, Ore., and Red Bluff, Calif., before landing in Reno.

THE F. B. I. agent coordinating the search, Thomas Manning, was strongly convinced the Woodland area was the best bet for finding a trace of the hijacker who used the name D. B. Cooper. Manning said: "We feel he's in this area. If we have to, we'll cover every square foot of it." He added: "We're concentrating our search for a parachute. We think this will give us a clue as to what happened to the hijacker.

"We've determined the hijacker was wearing a sport-type, backpack parachute. That means it would be difficult for him to maneuver if he had any kind of bulk on him at all, and we've been told $200,000 weighs more than 20 pounds."

Authorities earlier said the ransom was paid in $20 bills.

Manning said skydivers told him they doubted a man wearing street shoes could jump with a sport-type parachute and land in such a rough area at night without suffering injury.

The F. B. I. agent said the hijacker was "either and experienced jumper or he's crazy."

A composite sketch of the hijacker, based on descriptions provided by witnesses, was issued by the F. B. I. yesterday.

The sketch showed an ordinary-looking man with dark glasses.

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

p. A10 Seattle Times Seattle, Wash.

Date: 11/28/71 Edition: Sunday Author: Editor: Henry McLeod Title: UNSUB; aka Dan Cooper, Northwest Airlines Fl.305, Portland to Seattle, 11/24 Character: CAA-HIJACKING; EXT

Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle

☐ Being Investigated

COPY SENT TO BUREAU

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DB Cooper-22457