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FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63) It has now been three years since ‘‘Dan Cooper” parachuted from the Northwest Aijrlines jet he hijacked with $200,000 in ransom money, and, for good or ill, wrote himself into the folklore of the Pacific northwest. In two more years the federal statute of limitations on the crime will run out and Dan Cooper will be home free — if he’s still alive. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Cooper is the only person to ever * hijack a domestic airliner who has not been killed or brought to justice. ‘We know nothing more about him today than we did at 11 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1971,” said Julius Mattson, « special agent in charge of the Portland, Ore. FBI office. ‘I just wish we had something to go on. We don’t have a thing. Just a big zero.” These are the events of that Thanksgiving Eve « hijacking as authorities have reconstructed them: |. { Aman who gave his name as Dan Cooper bought .° 4a one-way ticket at Portland International Airport * “to Seattle aboard Northwest Airlines flight 305. which originated in Washington, D.C. No « antihijacking measures were in operation as the 36 » passengers boarded the Boeing 727 for ther’ 25-minute flight. ‘ In the air, Cooper handed stewardess Tina Mucklow a note saying he had a bomb. Following Cooper's orders, Miss Mucklow sat beside him and wrote down instructions to the pilot. Cooper wanted 10,000 $20 bills to be delivered to him at Seattle in a laundry sack, along with two sets of parachutes. Otherwise, he said he would blow up the plane. Airline officials and FBI agents complied and Cooper allowed the passengers and two of the three stewardesses to disembark at Seattle. Then he ordered the plane to fly south to Reno, Nev., at 200 miles per hour, at 10,000 feet, flaps down. The crew was to stay in the cockpit. After takeoff from Seattle, a red light flashed in the cockpit indicating the plane’s rear boarding ‘ramp had been unlatched. Nothing was heard from + é Cooper for about 20 minutes. At 8:10 p.m. as the + ‘plane crossed the Lewis River in Southwestern ‘ ‘Washington, Capt. William Scott thought the ° ‘DAN COOPER’ STILL AT LARGE, MAY HAVE WRITTEN A‘PAGE OF HISTORICAL FOLKLORE wlio . a 3 é “* v indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) _7_ DIVISION CRIMINAL JUSTICE SERVICES NEWSLETTER hijacker was having trouble with the ramp and , called back over the plane’s interphone: “Anything we can do for you?” There was no answer. 5 Then another light flashed to show the ramp was fully extended. A few seconds later Cooper came back on the interphone: “No.” That was the last anyone ever heard of him. | When the plane landed in Reno, the rear ramp was down and Cooper was gone. The 21-pound sack of, money was gone. One set of parachutes was gone. The hijacker, who had carefully reclaimed his note« to the stewardess, had left no fingerprints. -« -_ . Date: FEB .~MARCH 1097 Edition: Author: Editor: Title: Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: CI Being Investigated DB Cooper-1055