Part 53, page 123

Transcript

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being investigated. The spokesman said Cooper board- ed the plane in Portland. In Missoula, Leonard Kraut of the U.S. forest service's smoke jumper training centre confirmed he had "been checking all night for people, the FBI and others," whether there was a Michael Cooper who trained there. "I'm not saying he never was a smokejumper, I'm just saying he never jumped from this base," Kraut said. Most of the passengers did not know the plane had been hijacked. "The crew just said some- thing might be wrong with the plane," said Pat Minsch of [I]nchorage. "We had no idea there was a hijacking in- volved until we were off the plane."

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The man was sitting in back of the plane with the stewar- esses, said George Labisso- [niere] of Seattle. "There's nothing unusual looking about him," said Richard Simmons of Seattle, another passenger. "He is middle-aged and was wearing dark glasses." The plane, hijacked en route from Portland to Seattle, cir- cled the Seattle area for 3½ hours while airline officials arranged to have the $200,000 and four parachutes demand- ed by the hijacker brought to the airport. In Seattle the passengers were allowed to leave the plane, but had to cross an- other runway to reach a wait- ing bus which the hijacker refused to allow near the plane. All flights were halted

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While the passengers were in transit. The two stewardesses were allowed to leave later, but the pilot said the hijacker would not allow a third one to leave. There was no explanation why the hijacker wanted four parachutes. A series of fuel trucks shut- tled to, and from, the three- engine jet. Al Lee, a Northwest em- ployee who brought the money and parachutes to the plane, the operator of the passenger ramp, and the fueling crew were the only persons near the plane. The passengers were ques- tioned by the FBI before being released. Simmons said the first word from the pilot was about a[n] hour after the plane had been

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scheduled to land, and the pilot said only that there were mechanical difficulties and the plane had to circle to burn off fuel. "We knew something was wrong when they let us off on a cold, dark runway," Sim- mons said.

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Airplane similar to this one was hijacked on its way to Seattle.

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DB Cooper 22461