Part 53, page 169

Transcript

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

BY CRAIG SMITH

The passengers of the hijacked Northwest 727 jet said last night they didn't realize the plane was being hijacked until they had left the plane and were standing beside it.

The passengers said they were told after the flight left Portland that there was a "slight mechanical problem" and that the plane had been asked to circle Seattle to [guess: lose] fuel.

The hijacker sat in a right rear seat. Passengers said he was remarkably cool throughout the flight and as passengers deplaned.

Robert Gregory of Puyallup sat four seats from the hijacker and described the white, middle-aged man to newsmen by saying:

"He was dark and had dark black hair and a swarthy complexion. He had very

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Larry Finegold, [guess: 28], an assistant to U.S. District Attorney Stan Pitkin said, "I now recall the stewardess saying early in the flight, 'Keep the curtain open so he can see.' That didn't register at the time."

Finegold was returning from Vancouver where he has been an observer at the Ali-oto-O'Connell-Faler fee splitting trial.

Richard Simons of Seattle, who slept for one hour while the plane circled Seattle, said in retrospect he remembered the look on a stewardess' face when she took a call over the intercom telephone early in the flight:

"She got a startled look on her face, raised her eyebrows and gulped when she got the message."

The passengers were brought by bus from the southern tip of the runway to the terminal where they were questioned by the FBI and then allowed to leave.

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dark, black colored glasses on. He was kind of slumped down in the seat."

Gregory added that the hijacker "seemed very relaxed."

The extent of the coolness of the hijacker was shown in the few statements made by William Mitchell, 20, of Redmond who sat across the aisle from him and didn't know the plane had been hijacked until it landed.

Mitchell said he saw the hijacker whisper to a stewardess sitting next to him early in the flight. Still, he said he didn't know about the hijacking until the plane landed.

None of the passengers who talked to reporters said they saw dynamite or a gun.

Once the passengers were told about the hijacking, the significance of events on the flight that had seemed peculiar came into sharp focus as their significance became obvious.

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None of the 35 passengers showed any sign of shock. The only quip when they came into the building was made by Finegold when he saw a federal agent he knew, grinned, and said, "We got delayed a little."

Arnold Andvik of Seattle, a federal General Services Administration official, told newsmen later, "We had no idea there was a hijacker involved until we got off the plane."

The passengers expressed praise and concern for the crew after leaving the plane.

"The crew was marvelous," said Gregory. "They were certainly brave people."

Another passenger said he was convinced the crew did the right thing in telling the passengers the plane's problems were strictly mechanical. Otherwise, "someone might have panicked," the passenger said.

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DB Cooper-22507