Hijacker uses parachute

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32775, 27 November 1971, Page 17

Hijacker uses parachute

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) RENO, Nov. 26.

The police in four western states of the United States were searching in a 500-mile corridor of mountains and river valleys today for a hijacker who parachuted from a Boeing 727 airliner with §200,000.

The hijacking, carried out bv a cool, middle-aged man wearing a business suit, apparentlv was intricately planned. The ransom paid by! North-west Airlines was the biggest ever surrendered in an American hijacking. A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that the search for the parachutist was being concentrated in a wilderness area 25 miles north-west of Portland, in the state of Washington, but he admitted the search was being directed on a supposition rather than on definite information. SMOKE-JUMPER The F. 8.1. has identified the hijacker as “D. B. Cooper.” Earlier, the bureau: said that it had asked the United States Forest Service Smoke-Jumper School, in Misoula, Montana, for information about a man called Michael Cooper. SmokeJumpers are forest fire fight-

ed who parachute into in- i accessible areas. : The hijacking began on ! Wednesday night when ■ Cooper boarded the Boeing ! 727 in Portland. It was on the last stage of a flight from Washington, D.C., to Seattle. When the aircraft was in the air. Cooper showed a stewardess a briefcase containing two red cylinders and wires and said that he would blow up the aircraft unless his demands were met. The aircraft carried 36 other passengers and a crew of six. “QUITE RELAXED” "He was quite relaxed, sitting in the back seat on the starboard side,” said Mr R. Gregory, a passenger. Mr William Mitchell, who sat across the aisle from the man, said neither he nor the others had anv idea what he was doing. "I saw one stewardess answer a call and her face dropped,” said Mr Richard Simmons. “She looked bewildered and gulped. I guess she learned what was happening then.”

Captain William Scott, the pilot, told the Seattle Airport bv radio of the hijacker’s demands. A North-west Airlines official said that the man had ; not demanded any specific denomination of banknotes. The spokesman declined to sav whether the notes were marked in any way. Airline workers had to go to several banks to assemble the large sum.

The four parachutes he demanded, which are not in or-

dinarv use in commercial aviation, were another problem. Two military types were found at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, and were rushed to the Seattle airport. SPORTS TYPES When the hijacker learned that military types were being supplied, he demanded sports types instead. These were found at a nearby airfield used by sports parachutists.

The difference in the two types of parachutes, which was to prove significant later in the evening, is that the military type open automatically after about 200 ft, but users of sports parachutes can free-fall as long as they like before pulling the ripcord.

As the aircraft refuelled and the passengers were allowed off in Seattle, the hijacker made very careful stipulations for the take-off and flight to Reno. NEAR MINIMUM SPEED He said that the aircraft was to remain below 10,000 feet, that the flaps were to be kept canted, and that the rear exit door was to be kept open. The result was that the aircraft flew just above its minimum cruising speed of 200 miles an hour. After the take-off, the hijacker locked the remaining stewardess, Miss Tina Mucklow, in the cockpit with the three other crew members. He had the cabin to himself. Captain Scott said that the I last time he had communi-

cated with the man on the inter-communication system was when the aircraft was over Lake Merwin on the Lewis River in South Washington.

The captain said that instruments in the cockpit indicated that the steps down from the rear exit were lowered during the flight.

There was evidence of careful planning in the hijacking. The choice of the Boeing 727 was essential since it is the only kind of commercial airliner from which it is safe to parachute, because the rear exit is behind and under the engines. There was also apparent purpose in asking for more than one parachute. The reasoning was that the authorities would think the hijacker was going to ask the stewardess or a member of the crew to parachute with him, and thus would be sure to provide parachutes that opened. The hijacker was also apparently careful in choos- ' ing his terrain. The area : around Portland is the only • flat place on the Seattle-Reno : route.

A parachute jump too long after the plane passed Portland would involve landing in the snow of the Cascade Mountains.

A Defence Department spokesman in Washington said that an Air Force Cl3O transport aircraft had followed the hijacked Boeing 727, but said it had not been carrying paratroops.