Part 53, page 146

Transcript

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

(Mount Clipping In Space Below)

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Hijacker There's Still Not A Trace

BY DICK CLEVER P-I Staff

WOODLAND, Clark County — The man who hijacked a Northwest Airlines jetliner may have parachuted into the darkness over the gently rolling and wooded hills of this Southwest Washington countryside with his $200,000 ransom money.

At least that's the best hunch law officers had to work with yesterday, based on information passed to them by Northwest's headquarters in Minneapolis.

The "cool" middle-aged air pirate, who vanished Wednesday night somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nev., left law officers and airline officials stunned by disbelief. Some even expressed admiration for the hijacker's skill and daring.

"You have to admire the guy, in a way," said one Clark County deputy privately. "If he made it, he's really pulled one off."

Crew members of the 727 jetliner said in Minneapolis yesterday they had no idea when the hijacker parachuted from the plane.

Capt. William Scott, pilot of the aircraft, said the hijacker ordered the rear door of the plane opened shortly after takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma Airport.

"We never heard from him again, but we assumed he was there," Scott said.

The hijacker had enforced his demands for money and parachutes by displaying a device made from two red cylinders connected by wires to a briefcase.

Tina Mucklow, the stewardess who remained aboard for the flight to Reno after the 36 passengers and two other stewardesses were released, said of the hijacker: "He was impatient for a time, but never cruel, nasty or impolite to me in any way."

Scott said the hijacker did not specify any route between Seattle and Reno. And he discounted any possibility that the man could have received a signal from an accomplice from the ground because of the low clouds encountered by the plane during most of the flight.

Scott said the hijacker apparently tied himself to a seat to prevent being swept out the door when it was first opened. In Woodland, authorities were to resume this morning what some authorities confided may be a futile search for clues to the hijacking.

Undersheriff Tom McDowell told The P-I, "we hope to find something."

Tom Manning, of the FBI's Longview office, was coordinating search efforts from the command post here.

Authorities were aided by helicopter pilots from Weyerhaeuser Company and the Bonneville Power Administration who are familiar with the terrain to be covered.

A 150-square mile area roughly diamond-shaped was marked off on a map and divided into six sectors for search teams.

Manning said the information and date by which the area was defined was fed into a computer at Ft. Lewis. He said the information was partly based upon flight data provided by Northwest.

Weather reports indicate there was a southwesterly wind of about 30 miles an hour blowing through the Clark County foothills at about the time officials think the hijacker might have jumped. Manning said the plane was flying 200 miles per hour at an altitude of 7,000 feet as it passed over Clark County.

Expert parachutists in Seattle said a chutist could drift as much as three miles from the [guess: exiting] point of his jump in those wind conditions.

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

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p. Al Seattle Post- Intelligencer Seattle, Wash.

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Date: 11/27/71 Edition: Final Author: Dick Clever Editor: Dick Lyall Title: UNSUB; Northwest Airlines, Flight 305 Portland to Seattle, Character: 11/24/71 or CAA-HIJACKING; EXT. Classification: 164-31 Submitting Office: Seattle

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