Part 54, page 305

Transcript

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

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

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$200,000 AERIAL HIJACKER DID HE HAVE A HELPER?

BY DARYL LEMBKE Times Staff Writer

WOODLAND, Wash. -- A light plane swept out of the stormy night and circled over a crude airstrip in the hills 10 miles east of here.

The weather was bad, rainy and windy, and no fit night for a joy-rid- ing pilot to be landing on the bump- py, unlighted hilltop airstrip near a wooded ravine.

Yet some nearby residents say that a small plane did land at a little af- ter 8 p.m. on Nov. 24, at the same time and in the same area where a hijacker is believed to have para- chuted from an airliner with $200, 000 in $20 bills.

The eyewitness accounts of the strange presence of the light plane could ex- plain how the hijacker, who gave the name D. B. Cooper on boarding the airliner, escaped a three- day manhunt for him, or at least how he had planned to escape if he survived the parachute jump.

He could have had an accomplice who flew in by prearrangement and wait- ed for him or there could also have been a third par- ty in a car who looked for him and took him to the plane. The hijacker could have been in touch with his accomplice by walkie- talkie.

Adding credence to this theory is the fact that someone in a car apparent- ly rendezvoused with a pi- lot at another nearby air- strip the night before the hijacking and went for what could have been a pre-hijack scouting flight in equally bad weather.

Those who say they saw the light plane on the night of the hijacking have been questioned sev- eral times by FBI agents who also combed the wooded ravine near the airstrip during the man- hunt last weekend. The FBI refused comment Thursday on the signifi- cance of the reports about the small plane.

Indignant at Claims

The airstrip is on prop- erty owned by the McClel- lan family. Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. McClellan Jr., who live in a new house at the south end of the air- strip, formerly owned a plane but sold it. McClel- lan's parents live in an older house a little farther from the landing field.

Deer hunters and others flying light planes fre- quently set down on the strip, which is surrounded by foot-high weeds. But they seldom arrive at night in a rainstorm.

Robert M. McClellan Sr., 66, whose family has owned the ranch land for 100 years, was indignant at neighbors claims of see- ing or hearing a plane coming into the airstrip on the night of the hijacking. He said he had been in Vancouver, Wa. a sh[ort] 18 miles to the south, that night, but added that none of my family, who were home heard a plane.

I'd bet the $200,000 if I had it that they didn't pick him up here, McClellan said. Twelve FBI agents hunted that woods below my house there last week- end and didn't find any- thing. Course that doesn't mean much. I've lost calves in there for days.

A flight recorder in the commandeered Northwest Orient 727 indicated that the hijacker opened the rear door of the plane at 8:13 p.m. Because of a slight lurch of the plane, searchers deduced that he made the jump from the lowered rear steps two or three minutes later.

Mr. and Mrs. Emil Nei- ger, who live just down the road from the McClel- lan airstrip, said a plane had been circling the land- ing area most of that after- noon.

A little after 8 p.m. they saw what seemed to them a puzzling sight, consider- ing the severity of the storm.

We were gone for a while and came home about 8 o'clock, said Mrs. Neiger. It was washing the dishes when both of us saw [guess: it. This] plane [guess: was] [illegible] o [illegible] p down low. We thought it was going to land and it put its landing lights on. Then we thought it took off again.

Two miles down the road to the west, Mrs. [guess: Frank] DiSterfano saw something that made an impression on her at about 8:30 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Dis-

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

I-1 Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, Calif.

Date: 12/3/71 Edition: Friday Final Author: Editor: Title:

b6 Character: b7C or Classification: Submitting Office: Los Angeles

☐ Being Investigated

SEARCHED __ INDEXED __ SERIALIZED __ FILED __ 13 DEC 3 1971

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DB Cooper-22770