The Bandit Who Went Out into the Cold

Northwest Airlines Flight 305 began as the most prosaic of milk runs. It started in Washington, D.C., at 8:30 a.m. last Wednesday, with scheduled stops at Minneapolis, Great Falls and Missoula, Mont., Portland, Spokane and finally Seattle. What happened en route rivaled Alfred Hitchcock's more baroque fantasies. In the most elaborate skyjacking ploy in the bizarre history of air piracy, an inconspicuous middle-aged traveler identified on the manifest as "D.B. Cooper" extorted $200,000 from the airline, and apparently foiled any plan of capture by parachuting to safety over southwest Washington State.

Whoever the latest air pirate is, he obviously had conceived his plan with a lapidary's attention to detail. Wearing dark glasses and a plain business suit, he boarded the Boeing 727 in Portland and took a seat at the rear. He did nothing to distinguish himself from the other 36 passengers aboard--until he gave a stewardess a note stating his demands. "I thought he was trying to hustle me," said the stewardess, Florence Schaffner. "I stuffed the note in my purse, and he motioned that I should take it out and read it." He wanted, upon arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the sum of $200,000 and four parachutes. Recalls Passenger Richard Simmons: "I saw one stewardess answer a call, and her face dropped. She looked bewildered and gulped. I guess she learned what was happening then."

She certainly did. The hijacker showed her a briefcase that contained two red cylinders and a tangle of wire. He told her calmly that unless his demands were met he intended to blow up the airplane. She immediately relayed the demands to Captain William W. Scott, who in turn radioed Seattle ground control. Northwest President Donald W. Nyrop quickly issued orders to cooperate fully with the hijacker and "do whatever he demands." Airline officials were dispatched to round up the money, and a call went out for the four parachutes.

The 727 circled the Seattle airport until the hijacker was satisfied that the money and parachutes were ready. The plane then touched down at 5:40 p.m. Said Pilot Scott to the men in the control tower: "We will ask you to stay there until we get coordinated with our friend in the back."

Getting Antsy. Says Passenger Barbara Simmons: "It was really strange. When the plane landed, we sat there for 15 minutes, and nobody talked." As soon as the money and parachutes were brought aboard, the hijacker allowed the passengers and two of the stewardesses to disembark; however, he demanded that one of the girls, Tina Mucklow, remain on board as a hostage. The hijacker asked to be flown to Mexico. The crew explained that such a flight was out of their ship's range. At one point the impatient captain told the tower: "This guy is getting antsy." To underscore the point, the hijacker interrupted an attempt by a Federal Aviation Administration official to board the plane by snapping: "Let's get this show on the road!"

With the hijacker's agreement, the plane ultimately took off for Reno, ostensibly a refueling stop en route to Mexico. Yet it is clear that the hijacker knew precisely what he was about. He ordered the plane to be flown at less than 10,000 ft. and at 200 m.p.h., an extremely slow cruising speed. He also ordered the rear door to be left unlocked. Of all U.S. commercial airliners, only the 727 has a door beneath the tail that would permit a reasonably safe parachute jump. Then he locked Miss Mucklow in the forward cabin with the crew, and was not seen again. Five planes trailed the jet from Seattle, but no one saw the hijacker jump. If he fell free in the dark for more than a few hundred feet, however, he would have been almost impossible to spot.

Four-State Manhunt. FBI officials estimate that he dropped into an open area in the wilderness some 35 miles north of Portland. The location was determined by the time of his jump, which probably occurred when a red light went on in the cockpit, indicating a drop in cabin pressure. The hijacker must have opened the rear door at that point.

A four-state manhunt was immediately launched. FBI agents, along with more than 30 officers of the Clark and Cowlitz county sheriff's departments, set up a command post and fanned out through a thickly timbered corridor 15 miles long and ten miles wide near the towns of Longview and Ariel in southwest Washington. The area is densely forested enough to present a serious hazard to the jumper if he did not make the clearing. Said Undersheriff Tom McDowell: "We're either looking for a parachute or a hole in the ground."

The 3rd Armored Cavalry joined the search from the air, sending out two helicopters. But the hijacker also managed to pick ideally inclement weather to cover his escape. Sullen clouds rolled in from the Pacific, grounding the choppers until a couple of hours before darkness. By week's end officers were scratching their heads and wondering where to look next for the dapper, audacious fellow with $200,000 to spend.

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