◆ SpookStack

ema eels eh tenninntednaintiaebn Uh tlh buble te opiate kN La wn Whe seb A NLA Mek das ML cainthil atti Anke elsalabieies cheetah hetowKionnnannebediviudehehntntrhiikabselalinate tr sslQaind sna sdehinmbtoccht hatmeseiniie anion Pe | n i nembered Secing him. } > ROM THE beginning, it had a kind of ee- rie, hypnotic charm. Despite all the best pre- cautions, the man on board the jethad a bomb. And there were 4lother persons sitting around him. For Northwesterners, the scene had a_ special kind of horror. Friends and family were on board ! Northwest Flight 305, now sitting ominously mute and isolated on Runway 16R with no visible signs of activity on board. The atmosphere at the Seattle- Tacoma International Airport was heavy with a suspended, time-in- slow-motion feeling, even as telev- ision cameras covered the “event” live from the distant pas- senger terminal. : The runway lights, dimmed on demand to a faint glow, helped very little in defining the lines of the sleek 727, parked in the cold night in front of the airport’s ad- ministration” building. Even the . squatty truck, disgorging the’ aro- matic jet fuel, was almost a sil- | houette, its lights and rotating bea- | con extinguished. Inside, the man in the dark rain- coat sitting in the last seat on the starboard side was served up an unusual offering. A white cfoth sack and four squat parachutes. phe sack held a six-inch-thick rec- angular package weighing 271, pounds. It contained 16,080 $20 A minute later, the front cabin dgor opened slowly and 36 Passengers, many puzzled over the delay, were herdpd away from the plane in smal] groups, then into a bus whi a . $ which in toward the terminal. It was November 24 1871. The next day was Thanksgiving, cam AIRLINE OFFICIALS referre to the flight later as a puddle Just after 3 o’clock, Capt. Bill Séott Gf Minneapolis esxsed—the plane out of a shallow, climbing right turn toward a_ northerly heading. The seat-belt signs were still on. . -In the aft cabin, the swarthy man who had never removed his dark sunglasses beckoned to a stewardess, Tina Mucklow, and quietly handed her a note. four parachutes: two backpack type and two front packs. For added incentive, he opened his ordinary-looking attache case a few inches and showed her the contents: several red cylinders connected by wire. The long-haired, blond steward- ess nodded understandingly and began to make her way up the-still sloping aisle toward the locked cockpit door. Mr. D. B. Cooper had announceél his arrival. As the plane neared, then passed Seattle, passengers began to pgt nervous — for the first time, bit" son. “People began to ke concerned when it circled around Whidbey Island for an _ hour or so,” Robert Gregory of Puyallup, who sat four seats away from the icy-nerved skyjacker, re- called. . y They thought something was wrong with the plane,” he said. About 5:45, Captain Scott touched the plane down and rolled it smoothly to a stop, but in front of the airport’s administration building, a half mile from the pas? senger terminal. At the same mo} ment, the stewardesses stood up, -Squarely blocking the aisles and Scott spoke emphatically over the loudspeaker, ordering passengers to please remain in their seats and not to move until told to. They fidgeted in their seats, multering. Gregory’s seat on the port side was blocked by the stew- jumper” — routinely racing the gardess, Tina Mucklow, standing run from the East Coast with its fast {Wo scheduled Stops Portland Hight eat: a cay: however, ; ) Would make > addi- tonal stop. one addi Earlier that after i 4 ; alternoon, a middle- aged, ordinary-looking man waited in Hine.at the Portland ticket coyn- ” er, Paid cash for a tourist cabin eat, and sat quietly for 50 minutes un the airport wailing room until oarding time. Later, no one re- very still. . “What's the problem?” Gregory asked her. “Don’t look back,” she cau tioned, keeping her eyes fixed or} the other stewardess in the for ward cabin. Both girls looked “A little ereen,” Gregory recalled. It said he wanted $200,000 and | { i] for the wrong rea-. No announcement was made thatanytking was wrong,” but tite plane’s back door, for exiting pas- | sengers, remained bolted and the passengers remained in their | seats, fixed under the glare of the seat-belt sign. No one had seen any weapons. TWENTY MINUTES dragged by. The crew conferred frequently over the plane’s intercom. Then, heads looked up as Ms. Mucklow walked slowly toward the rear of the plane carrying a large white cloth sack. Everyone knew-it was a money bag and everyone knew what it meant. ’ Then, at 6:50 p.m., the passen- gers and two remaining steward- esses were directed off. Gregory, who had noticed the man earlier on a trip to the restroom, turned as he left and got a good look at Cooper. . “No, he didn’t look calm,” Gre- gory recalled. ““He was very wary, watcliing everybody that moved very |ntently.” . k It was suddenly very quiet on the airplane. Cooper had told Scoit he “wanted fuel out here right now” and he was assured that the airline would cooperate com- pletely. The silver-haired pi- lot was playing it slowly; and calmly. So was airling headquarters in Minneapolis. The company had requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation - ‘net to take any. action in-trying to beard the plane.or capture the sus- pect. ; 4. Earl Milnes, then special agent in charge of the bureau’s Seattle office, agreed to comply with the request in every way. The minutes oozed by. Finally, the plane was fueled but with only 2,300 pounds. Cooper extinguished the last of a series of Raleigh fil- ter-tip cigarets, then ventured cau- tiously over to the plane’s inter- , com. “He just told me he wanted to go to Mexico City,”! Scott remem- bered. “He didn’t specify the route. He just wanted to go at 10,000 feet.” The skyjacker also ordered that the’ 727 fly with flaps down 15 pe cert, and the landing gear low- _ ered. “He seemed very rational, Scott said. “Calm and_ sclf-as- sured.” DB Cooper-1487 6