Part 54, page 69

Transcript

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

FBI refuse[d] comment Thurs- day on the significance of the reports about the sma[ll] plane. The airstrip is on prop- erty owned by the McClel- lan family. Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. McClellan Jr. live in a new house at the south end of the airstrip. McClellan formerly owned a plane but sold it. His par- ents 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 seldom at night in a rain- storm. A flight recorder in the [guess: commandeered] Northwest Orient 727 indicated that the hijacker opened the rear door of the plane at 8:1[1] p.m.

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Mr. and Mrs. Emil Neiger, who live just down the road from the McClellan airstrip said that a little after 8 p.m. they saw what seemed to them a puzzling sight, con- sidering the severity of the storm. [illegible] We were gone for a while and came home about 8 7 o'clock," said Mrs. Neiger. "[I] was washing the dishes when both of us saw this plane swoop down low. We thought if 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. Frank Distefano ano saw something that made an impression on her about 8:30 p.m. [illegible] "I was home alone when I saw a plane out the back window about 8:30," said Mrs. Distefano. "It flew over twice, very low, and it had a big red light on the tail. It seemed bigger than a light[illegible]

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DB Cooper-22995