Part 53, page 7
Document date 20 March 1973
FBI 164-81, Vault Part 53 p. 7 (DB Cooper-22345), News clipping, dated 20 Mar 1973 — cooper.theunsolved.net/parts/Cooper-Part-53/pages/7
Transcript
The scan is the source; the transcript is machine-generated from it.
[guess: Arizona] Republic [guess: Friday], Nov. 26, 1971
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FBI narrows area of search for skyjacker
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United Press International
WOODLAND, Wash. — The Federal Bureau of Investigation said yesterday a daring hijacker who parachuted from an airliner with $200,000 ransom probably landed in a tiny wooded area east of here, and might still be there.
"We feel he's in this area," FBI Agent Thomas Manning said of the 3-by-5 mile stretch of rough timber country 35 miles north of Portland, Ore. "If we have to, we'll cover every square foot of it."
In addition, an Army helicopter was sent to check out "something white" spotted by a search plane.
Search officials said it could be a parachute shroud, but also a number of other things, including white plastic left by loggers.
The hijacker, a swarthy, middle-aged man who called himself "D. B. Cooper," took over a Northwest Airlines 727 with a "bomb" during a flight from Portland Wednesday.
He forced the plane to land at Seattle, collected four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills in a white cloth bag and allowed the passengers off. Then he ordered the crew to fly him to Reno, Nev.
Somewhere along the way he parachuted into the night.
Manning said the plane's in-flight recorder showed that at 8:10 p.m., when the plane was over the target area of the search, instruments showed the rear door being lowered.
Three minutes later, he said, a "slight change in attitude" of the plane indicated that was the moment of the jump.
The FBI agent said skydivers in the area had told him they doubted a man wearing street shoes could jump with a parachute of the type the skyjacker was using and land without suffering injury.
"We've got to have a theory," Manning said. "This is the one we've adopted. People say the aircraft crew does not know exactly when he went out but it's all been computerized and we feel he's in this area."
Meanwhile, a parade of autos, pickup trucks and motorcycles carrying fortune-hunters looking for the 10,000 bills diminished yesterday, discouraged by the rough terrain.
A young farmer in a battered pickup truck commented that "even a good Christian man" would be tempted to keep the money if he came across it in the woods.
"A man could buy himself a pretty nice farm with that kind of money."
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Artist's composite drawing of man suspected of hijacking Northwest Airlines jet on Nov. 24.
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INDEXED FILED SEARCHED SERIALIZED JAN _ 1973 FBI — SEATTLE
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b6 b7C [guess: SW3]
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DB Cooper-22345