Part 62, page 216

Transcript

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Flight 305. LaBissoniere, who also saw the hijacker without his hat, said in an interview that he identified Coffelt's story. The account released by the FBI has the an FBI photo of Coffelt a month after the hijacking. plane taking off from Seattle and heading directly But he said nothing more ever happened as a result of over Portland. Then the plane continued south to the identification, as far as he knows. He added that he Medford, Ore., staying on the west side of Mount Hood tried calling the FBI several times, but no one ever and the Cascades range. Somewhere in northern returned his calls. California, the FBI says, the plane turned east toward Reno.

The hijacking points

Coffelt's story is at odds with this. He told Brown According to Jim Brown, a former cell mate, that the plane flew to the east of Mount Hood and that Coffelt told him that, during the hijacking, when the he jumped in an area northeast of the mountain. $200,000 was delivered and the plane was still on the So, if it could be proved that the plane took the ground in Seattle, he ordered the pilots over the cabin route released by the FBI, Jack Coffelt was not D.B. intercom to "get this bleeping show on the road." The Cooper. But, on the other hand, if it can be shown that quotes used in news reports were "Let's get this show the airliner flew east of Mount Hood — in direct on the road" and "Let's get this damn show on the contradiction to all published accounts — then one road." might have to believe that Coffelt hijacked Flight 305.

Summers claims that co-pilot Rataczak confirmed FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach, the agent in to him that Cooper used such language. charge of the D.B. Cooper investigation since the

Coffelt told Brown that when the plane left beginning, stands firm on the published route. Seattle, he was alone for a time with stewardess Tine Macklow Larsen, and he flirted with her. "It's not possible that the hijacker jumped out

Nothing like this has ever been reported in the anywhere near Mount Hood or the east side of it," he press. However, in an interview with Summers at the said in an interview. "Air traffic control tracked the home of her brother-in-law (who is an FBI agent), route of the plane." But those radar records are not Larsen admitted that D.B. Cooper had "made a pass" at available to the public, nor is the black-box informa- her. Also, in an interview conducted by another tion from the plane's cockpit. "We're not going to source, stewardess Wheeler said that Larsen told her release a detailed map of the thing," Himmelsbach the same story about flirting shortly after the said. hijacking.

Dirk Summers said that, in an interview with

In published accounts, the FBI said the hijacker Rataczak, the co-pilot referred to flying "to the left was obviously an amateur and noted as proof that he of ... easterly" of Mount Hood. (This could not be had parachuted from the plane wearing street shoes, confirmed; the entire cockpit crew refused to grant apparently unaware that the slipstream would pull interviews.) Summers speculated that the FBI might them off. But Brown said Coffelt told him that he have given a misleading route so tha: the landing area changed from street shoes into boots before the jump, wouldn't be swamped with treasure hunters while

Wheeler, the stewardess, has reported to several agents combed it. sources that she saw D.B. Cooper change into boots Two F-106 jets from McCord Air Force Base before jumping. followed Flight 305, after it took off from Seattle. Lt.

The FBI's official version is that Cooper told the Col. Harvey L. Wallace, now retired, piloted one of the pilot he wanted to go to Mexico and that the crew — jets and remembers that night. "We were in heavy not Cooper — selected Reno as a refueling stop. This weather. There were a few breaks in it but it was version suggests the hijacker did not plan to jump over pretty dark and thick and I didn't see him jump. I a specific area. stayed above the plane because I know what these

But Brown said Coffelt told another story: That he mountains around there are like." To the crucial ordered the pilot to fly directly to Reno, at an altitude question of whether or not they flew to the west or of 10,000 feet and at a speed of no more than 200 miles east of Mt. Hood, Wallace says, "I really don't know. I per hour, with the plane's flaps at 15 degrees. Coffelt was radar-controlled the whole way. I know I broke off said he knew when to jump because the spot had been somewhere south of Medford, probably into California, staked out with beacons. He added that he had a Jeep when my fuel got low after following him [the plane] hidden nearby. for more than two hours."

Summers said co-pilot Rataczak confirmed that Cooper selected Reno as a refueling stop and directed him to fly at 10,000 feet at 200 mph and with 15-degree flaps.