Part 53, page 136

Transcript

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

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

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Search pressed for hijacker

Search crews went into the field and into the air again today as the hunt continued for the daring Northwest Orient Airlines hijacker who parachuted from a 727 jet with $200,000 in ransom Wednesday night.

A 100-man posse, aided by 10 Clark County sheriff's patrol cars and six helicopters, fanned out again in a five-mile line through the mountain foothills near Woodland.

An eight-hour search yesterday produced nothing, Tom Manning, Federal Bureau of Investigation coordinator, said.

Manning said the hijacker had to be "either crazy or an experienced jumper" to make it. He said the money he carried with him when he left the rear stairs of a 727 jetliner weighed 24½ pounds.

AUTHORITIES disclosed yesterday that the $200,000 was supplied in $20 bills—a packet of 10,000 bills that weighed 24½ pounds and measured 8 by 6 by 27 inches.

"We checked reports of possible sightings but they all proved false," Clark County Sheriff Eugene Cotton said.

About 25 to 35 sheriff's deputies and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were contacting residents on the ground while two helicopters looked for a parachute yesterday afternoon.

A 20-square-mile area east of Woodland was being checked even though F. B. I. officials said the hijacker could have bailed out anywhere between there and Reno.

William Scott, pilot of the plane, said he complied with the hijacker's request to darken the cabin, fly no higher than 10,000 feet and leave the rear stairs down. Scott said indicator lights in the cockpit showed the rear stairwell was being operated as the plane flew over the Woodland area, shortly after takeoff from Seattle.

It was also the last communication between the hijacker and the crew.

F. B. I. AGENTS told searchers to look for two white parachute canopies and parts of a pink one found open and torn aboard the plane when it landed. The agents speculated that the hijacker might have used parts of the torn parachute to tie packets of money to his body.

The hijacker also took some of the plane crew's food rations with him when he jumped.

Colton said temperatures outside the plane were below zero when the door was opened and it was assumed the hijacker couldn't have withstood the cold too long.

THE HIJACKER, who boarded the plane in Portland, showed a briefcase to a stewardess en route to Seattle and told her it contained a bomb. He demanded $200,000 and two parachute assemblies, each consisting of a back pack and chest pack.

When he received the $200,000 and the parachutes at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, he released 36 passengers and two stewardesses, then ordered the three-man flight crew and one stewardess to take him to Mexico City. The plane headed for Reno for a refueling stop.

The hijacker was gone when the plane landed in Reno Wednesday night.

Florence Schaffner, 23, of Minneapolis, the stewardess first contacted by the hijacker, said in Minneapolis yesterday she thought the hijacker was "trying to hustle me" when he handed her a note.

She said: "I stuffed the note in my purse and he motioned that I should take it out and read it."

Miss Schaffner did. It said the man had a bomb.

Capt. William Scott, pilot of the plane, said he was surprised when the plane landed in Reno and the hijacker was gone. Earlier reports said the pilot believed the man parachuted out over the Woodland area. Scott said that when the plane landed in Reno:

"I STEPPED into the cabin and asked if there were any more instructions, but there was no answer. I looked around the curtain and determined he was not there."

Stewardess Tina Mucklow, 22, of Richfield, Minn., said she sat with the hijacker when the plane left Seattle but was ordered forward with the rest of the crew shortly after takeoff.

"He was not nervous," she said. "He seemed rather nice, and he was never cruel or nasty."

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

p. A4 Seattle Times Seattle, Wash.

Date: 11/27/71 Edition: Sunset Final Author: Editor: Henry McLeod Title: UNSUB;Northwest Airlines, Flight 305, Portland to Seattle, Character: 11/24/71 °CAA-HIJACKING;EXT Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle

☐ Being Investigated

COPY SENT TO BUREAU [illegible stamps] SERIALIZED .........FILED.........

. . . 0 1971 FBI—SEATTLE

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DB Cooper-22474