Part 53, page 176

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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Hunt for hijacker pressed in Clark County

An intensive search continued today in Clark County for the Thanksgiving Eve hijacker who commandeered a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 and parachuted from it with $200,000 ransom money.

The search by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and sheriff's deputies is being concentrated in a five-mile corridor between Woodland and Battle Ground, north of Vancouver.

J. Earl Milnes, special agent in charge of the Seattle office of the F. B. I., said the area is being searched because of the position of the plane at "the last time he was known (by the crew) to be aboard."

Milnes added: "Actually, he could be anywhere between there and Reno."

THERE WAS an unconfirmed report that the crew reported a slight shift in the plane's balance while over a Clark County farmland region Wednesday night.

Federal Aviation Administration officials said their radar could not pick up an object as small as a parachutist.

Two jets sent to follow the hijacked plane apparently were too far away to observe the jump. If they weren't, officials were not saying.

The Clark County area near Portland also was suspect because the hijacker boarded the plane in Portland. There was speculation someone might have been waiting on the ground to pick him up.

Airline executives and the F. B. I. declined to say whether the ransom money was marked or serial numbers were recorded.

THE HIJACKER took over the flight from Portland to Seattle Wednesday by showing a stewardess what he said was a bomb in a briefcase. He collected $200,000 ransom at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport in exchange for the plane's 36 passengers and two stewardesses.

He ordered two parachute assemblies, each consisting of a chest pack and a back pack, then demanded the back door be left open as the plane flew to Reno. When it arrived in Reno, he was gone.

A three-man flight crew and a stewardess said they were confined to the cockpit after the plane left Seattle and did not see the hijacker jump.

IN PICKING a 727, the methodical hijacker chose one of the few commercial jets with an exit at its extreme rear, under the tail — one acceptable for a parachute jump.

It was determined yesterday that one of the two parachutes apparently used in the jump was an inoperable ground-practice chute.

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

P. A7 Seattle Times Seattle, Washington

Date: 11-26-71 Edition: Night Sports 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

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DB Cooper-22514

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[illegible] [illegible] [illegible] FBI—SEATTLE