Part 77, page 389

Transcript

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FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63) (Mount Clipping in Space Below) (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) 1 St. Paul Dispatch —St. Paul, Minn.

Date: Nov. 25, 1971 Edition: Evening Author: Editor: H.G. Burnham Jr. Title:

Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: Minneapolis

☐ Being Investigated

164-73 —27 SEARCHED _____ INDEXED ___ SERIAL... .......D — NOV 2 9 1971

b6 b7C

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Hijacker Parachutes Free

Extorts $200,000 With Bomb Threat

Dispatch Wire Services RENO, Nev. — A hijacker apparently parachuted to freedom from a commandeered passenger jet after extorting $200,000 from Northwest Airlines with a bomb threat, authorities say.

Two of four parachutes obtained by the middle-aged hijacker from airline officials in Seattle were missing when the plane landed here with four crewmen aboard, the FBI reported today.

"There's no way he could have gotten off in Reno," said Harold E. Campbell Jr., special agent in charge of FBI operations in Nevada. "We had the airport covered."

Campbell declined to comment on reports that the hijacker was an experienced parachutist, possibly a fire-fighting smoke-jumper.

THE PLANE'S CREW, all based in the Twin Cities, were identified as William Scott, pilot; Bob Radaczak, co-pilot; H. E. Anderson, flight engineer; and Tina Mucklow, stewardess.

An airlines spokesman said no passengers boarded the plane in the Twin Cities, one of five stops between Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

Officials at McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma refused to say whether the pilots of three planes that trailed the hijacked Boeing 727 airliner saw any parachutes during the flight.

Authorities said the hijacker probably parachuted from the plane sometime after it left Seattle Wednesday night, but apparently there were no witnesses to his escape.

As the plane reached Reno, pilot Scott was [guess: monitored] reporting to the airport tower by radio that the hijacker "took leave of us somewhere between here and Seattle."

Thirty-six passengers and two stewardesses had been let off the plane in Seattle. But airline officials said the hijacker locked the remaining four crew members in the cockpit after the plane took off again.

"HE'S IN THE back of the airplane and everyone else is in front," Federal Aviation Administration supervisor Art Wiborn said during the Seattle-to-Reno flight.

The plane made the run at 10,000 feet with its rear stairwell open so the hijacker could bail out. [guess: If] he chose. At that altitude no oxygen was required.

"It would be a very safe drop," said John Wheeler, a Boeing Co. spokesman. "He'd be away from flaps and other engines and go straight down."

The FBI's Campbell said [guess: to] his knowledge no hijacker had ever escaped by parachuting from a plane.

LAW ENFORCEMENT officers with dogs combed Reno International Airport and the surrounding area after the plane landed. There was no sign of the hijacker, the money or any bomb. A stewardess said the hijacker had cylinders which looked like dynamite and wires led to a briefcase he carried.