Part 63, page 160

Transcript

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

AERONAUTICAL CHART OF THE PORTLAND, OREGON, AREA

1. Point where the FBI thinks Cooper Jumped 2. Portland International Airport where he boarded Flight 305 3. Spot where unidentified Skull was found 4. Woodland, Washington, Headquarters for the Search 5. Route of Flight 305 on its flight from Seattle to Reno

---

[guess: departed] the aircraft, other FBI agents apparently did not. According to FBI Information Officer Harring- ton, a search was started in the vicin- ity of Lake Merwin in southern Washington almost immediately after the plane passed over. Information supplied by the crew was reported to be the reason for this. When ques- tioned specifically about what it was the crew reported that convinced the FBI that Cooper had jumped in this area, Harrington was vague. However it was definitely established that at 8:10 that night the 727 passed over the Lewis River on federal airway V-23E and that this was the time immediately after the hijacker had fully extended the stairs. Harrington states that the plane was in solid cloud at the time. Other reports indicate that the Air Force had scrambled interceptors to follow the airliner, but because of darkness, or the clouds, or both, they never saw a man leave the airliner. At the Portland International Air- port, approximately 30 miles south, the weathermen were reporting a ceiling of 2500 feet overcast with rain. Winds at the aircraft's altitude of 10,000 feet were reported to be from the West-Southwest at 25 to 45 knots.

Believing that Cooper had jumped somewhere near where the airway crosses the Lewis River (at about the Lake Merwin Dam), the FBI trans- formed the nearby town of Woodland, Washington, into a command post. Agent Tom Manning was put in charge of a small army of police, FBI agents, Sheriff's Deputys and soldiers from Ft. Lewis, Washington. They spent all of that Thursday, Thanksgiving Day 1971, combing a section approximately ten miles wide by fifteen miles long, both north and south of Lake Merwin with planes, helicopters, jeeps and tracking dogs. The weather was bad with intermit- tent rain and fog and this hindered the search. At one point, the Army called off its helicopters, but other helicopters provided by Weyer- haeuser, the lumber company, and the Bonneyville Power Administra- tion continued making intermittent passes over the area. Much of the area is rugged terrain and the freshly

---

Continued on Page 38 DB Cooper-26563