Part 53, page 139

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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Sketch Made Of Hijacker

BY DICK CLEVER

Who is the man who parachuted from a hijacked Northwest Airlines jetliner to commit one of the most daring acts of air piracy in aviation history?

As of last night, the hijacker's identity remained a mystery, as did the whereabouts of the $200,000 he took as ransom money for 36 passengers and two stewardesses.

The FBI has been characteristically tight-lipped. But the agency did release a composite sketch of a thin, dark, middle-aged man wearing dark glasses.

And FBI agents vowed to search the entire route between Seattle and Reno, Nev., flown by the hijacked Boeing 27.

Along with the FBI sketch, a personality pattern of the hijacker began to emerge yesterday.

He was obviously a meticulous planner, an intelligent individual who plotted his escapade carefully. A calm, conservatively dressed "straight-looking" type, he did not fit the so-called profile of a typical hijacker.

He knew the capabilities of the Boeing 727 and that it was probably the only commercial jetliner from which a parachutist could safely leap.

The amount of money — $200,000 — was a large amount, but still a sum that could be raised by an airline in a short period of time. The weight of the 10,000 twenty dollar bills, at about 24 pounds, would be light enough to handle in a parachute jump if the bills were properly packaged.

But twenty dollar bills are small enough not to cause a great deal of suspicion when being passed.

At 6-feet-1 and 175 pounds, the hijacker was probably in good physical condition for a man in his mid-forties.

The hijacker chose a "bomb" as his weapon rather than a firearm. Some law officers speculated that the man wanted to create the fear that a possible madman was at work who had no fear of losing his own life if his demands were not met.

Most authorities believe the hijacker was an experienced jumper. But they believe his experience was in military jumping, or combat jumping, rather than sport parachuting.

Earl Cossey, president of Sky Sports, Inc., and Seattle parachuting club, shares that theory.

"He knew about military chutes," Cossey said. "Because when he found out they were sending some chutes up from McChord Air Force Base, he turned them down."

Cossey explained that the military chutes were the type that open immediately after the jumper exits from airplane. This would not allow the chutist to fall free of the military observation planes that were following the hijacked liner.

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

D. Al Seattle Post- Intelligencer Seattle, Wash.

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Date: 11/28/71 Edition: Sunday Author: Dick Clever Editor: Dick Lyall Title: UNSUB;Northwest Airlines, Flight 305, Portland to Seattle Character: 11/24/71 oCAA-HIJACKING; EXT Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle

☐ Being Investigated.

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COPY SENT TO BUREAU

[partially illegible stamps]

FBI — SEATTLE

DB Cooper-2247