Part 54, page 150

Transcript

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

FD-350 (Rev. 10-19-77)

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A remnant of D. B.'s leap?

KELSO (AP) — A heavy plastic placard from a Boeing 727, found by a hunter in a thickly wooded area, could be a link to the unsolved Nov. 24, 1971, D. B. Cooper skyjacking, authorities said today.

Cooper is thought to have parachuted from the Northwest Airlines jet near Woodland, about 10 miles south of here, with $200,000 in $20 bills.

The placard is described as an emergency warning notice of the type posted next to the rear exit of 727s.

"There isn't any way that it could have come off a plane without the (rear) door being opened," said Cowlitz County Sheriff Les Nelson. "We know that two days after Cooper jumped the placard was missing off the plane.

"This is the first probable, tangible piece of evidence that has surfaced in the D. B. Cooper case," he added. "It's inconceivable, it's one in a million, that any other plane could have lost it in the area in which D. B. Cooper jumped."

The placard was found about "six flying minutes" from where Cooper is believed to have jumped, said Nelson. It was found last November by an elk hunter, Carroll Hicks of Kelso, near a Weyerhaeuser Co. logging road north of the town of Ariel, said Nelson.

Although Cooper is immune from prosecution now — the federal statute of limitations on that crime is five years, authorities have said — he has never been seen and none of the $20 bills given in ransom has surfaced in circulation.

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EMERGENCY IT HANDLE AFT AIRSTAIR TO OPERATE ACCESS DOOR, PULL ON R[illegible] [illegible] LOCK WIRE WILL BREA[K] [W]HEN HANDLE IS PULLED

AP Laserphoto

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Cooper placard?

Cowlitz County Sheriff's detective Bob Nix displayed an exit placard from a Boeing 727, found near Toutle by a hunter, and confirmed by the FBI as matching one missing from the plane hijacked by D. B. Cooper in 1971.

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S.U.B. [guess: Ben]

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

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p.A1 News Tribune Tacoma, Wa.

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Date: 1/17/79 Edition: Final

Title:

Character: or Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle

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[guess: 64]-81-S[illegible] SEARCHED _____ INDEXED _____ SERIALIZED _____ FILED _____ FEB 2 [guess: 1979] [illegible]

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DB Cooper-23079

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FBI/DOJ

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b6 b7C