Part 53, page 3

Transcript

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

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

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Would 'D. B. Cooper' try it again? —Anti-skyjacking measures costly, but are paying off——

WITH the arrival of spring there are unofficial reports that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have resumed their search of Southwest Washington for some trace of "D. B. Cooper."

Law-enforcement and aviation-industry officials are pretty well convinced that "Cooper" has been dead in a tree in the densely wooded Lewis River-Lake Merwin country since his $200,000 Thanksgiving Eve skyjacking in 1971. They think "Cooper" perished in his parachute jump from a commandeered Boeing 727 en route from Seattle to Reno.

Whether or not the mystery of "D. B. Cooper" is ever solved, his status as something of a folk hero is likely to diminish when air travelers begin to face up to the extra costs the likes of "D. B. Cooper" have imposed on them.

THE AVIATION INDUSTRY has estimated that the new anti-skyjacking security measures, implemented last month in airports around the nation will cost up to $153 million a year.

Under the administration's plan, now in effect, the costs of the added security measures are being borne by the airports and airlines, which they in turn probably will pass on to air travelers.

Most of the major carriers already have asked the Civil Aeronautics Board to authorize modest fare increases.

A strong bipartisan bloc in Congress wants Uncle Sam, instead, to pick up the tab. Either way, of course, the public pays.

THE ARGUMENT OVER skyjacking controls does not end with the cost factor. Congressional opponents of the administration's local-responsibility plan believe a federal force of armed guards, especially trained for airport duty, would provide superior security.

"I do not regard skyjacking as a 'local' crime," says the Senate minority leader, Hugh Scott, in a rare break with President Nixon's views. "Nor do I feel that local law-enforcement officials have either the manpower or the expertise necessary to handle such a difficult and delicate operation."

Senator Howard D. Cannon, chairman of an aviation subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, calls the administration's local-police plan "a hodge-podge enforcement effort and a continuation of divided authority."

BUT FORMER TRANSPORTATION Secretary Volpe thinks use of federal officers at the airport would be "an unnecessary and unwarranted intrusion of the federal police power into the jurisdictions and responsibilities of state and local governments." Volpe sees no reason for the federal government to "get into the day-to-day crime-prevention business at our airports."

Regardless of how increased airport security ultimately is financed and organized, the new system seems to be working. Skyjacking attempts have fallen off drastically since armed guards were stationed at airport boarding gates six weeks ago.

And it is apparent that the vast majority of air travelers not only tolerate the delays and minor inconveniences of the security procedures, but welcome them as providing reassurance against a side trip to Cuba or Algeria.

AN EXTRA MEASURE OF security is in force at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which is one of eight major airports where computerized metal-detectors have been installed. These devices are so sensitive they can spot concealed weapons while ignoring such items as keys and cigaret lighters.

If "D. B. Cooper's" 1971 adventure did not, in fact, end in the Cowlitz County backwoods, one doubts that he would elect to try for another $100,000 by challenging such a device with a pistol in his jump suit.

—Dwight Schear

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

p.AL2 Seattle Times Seattle, Wash.

Sun B

Date: 3/29/73 Edition: Final Author: Dwight Schear Editor: Henry McLeod Title: NORFAK Character: or Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle [X] Being Investigated

COPY SENT TO BUREAU

164-81-Sub B

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SEARCHED [illegible] FILED DB Cooper 22341