Still Missing: Rethinking the D.B. Cooper Case and Other Mysterious Unsolved Disappearances (15 page)

Cooper was one of the last passengers to board the Boeing 727. Passengers on this flight were not assigned their seats; they simply chose the seat they wanted when they were aboard. Smoking was allowed on the flight also and there weren’t “Smoking” and “Non-smoking” sections, passengers could smoke anywhere on the plane. Most passengers chose to sit towards the front of the plane on this flight. Clad in a light raincoat and carrying his black briefcase, he ascended the aircraft’s rear stairs and selected one of the seats in the very back row of the airplane, seat 18C, on the right side of the aircraft. He sat in the middle seat, leaving an empty seat to his left and to his right. This will make sense in the end. All the jetliner’s seats face forward and the last row of seats are the only seats you can watch all the other passengers on the plane without having to turn your head or body. After all, no one can sneak up on you from behind if they are in front of you.

The three stewardesses were busy getting everybody to their seat, taking drink orders and making sure their passengers were buckled in their seats. The flight looked to be an easy affair for them, with only about a dozen passengers per stewardess, instead of the 30 plus they would encounter on full flights. In the coach section, Tina Mucklow, age 22, and Florence Schaffner, age 23, were the stewardesses, while the stewardess in First Class was Alice Hancock.

Flo, as coworkers and friends sometimes called Florence, asked the quiet passenger in seat 18C if he would like anything to drink. Cooper ordered a drink, a bourbon and 7Up. The drink was a dollar, but all Cooper had was a twenty-dollar bill. Flo told him he would have to wait for change.

Cooper lit up a cigarette and tried to relax.

The 727, only about one-third full, took off just a few minutes after its scheduled departure time. Around 3:00 p.m., the plane taxied toward the runway to line up for take-off. With all the passengers buckled in, many with drinks in hand, Flo headed to the rear of the aircraft to take her seat. On the 727, there were two folding jump-seats the stewardesses would sit in during take-offs and landings. The captain’s voice was heard over the intercom preparing everyone for takeoff.

The flight crew, who took over the jetliner’s operation in Minneapolis, was proficient and experienced. Pilot William A. Scott was the Captain, William J Rataczak was the Copilot, and Harold E. Anderson was the Second Officer.

The 727 turned and lined up with the center of the runway. The pilots pushed forward on the throttle levers and the three jet engines located at the rear of the aircraft started to whine and howl. When the crescendo of the jet’s three engines achieved their climax, the pilots released the brakes and the airliner jerked forward and started speeding down the runway. As if the release of the aircraft’s brakes were some kind of trigger, Cooper leaned over and passed a note to Flo, who was situated nearest to him in a jump seat attached to the aft stair door. The stewardess, thinking the note was the passenger’s way of trying to entice her into a romantic rendezvous, put the note into her purse. Cooper leaned toward her and whispered, “Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb.”

Waiting until the 727 was speeding down the runway for takeoff before Cooper revealed his intentions to hijack the aircraft insured the takeoff wouldn’t be aborted and the jetliner would be airborne while he negotiated his demands. The detonation of any type of explosive device would be much more devastating to an aircraft in flight, than to one on the tarmac.

The 727 accelerated down the runway like a rocket. People felt a slightly queasy feeling in their stomach as the cramped tube they occupied suddenly lurched upward, eliminating the vibrations and bumps of the plane’s tires on the runway surface. They were aloft. The 174-mile trip from Portland to Seattle would take at least three hours by automobile under the best conditions, but it would only be a half hour plane ride, since the 727 had a cruising speed of about 540 miles per hour.

The note was printed in neat, all-capital letters with a felt pen. It read, “I HAVE A BOMB IN MY BRIEFCASE. I WILL USE IT IF NECESSARY. I WANT YOU TO SIT NEXT TO ME. YOU ARE BEING HIJACKED.” The stewardess nervously did as requested and unstrapped her seat belts and pushed herself out of her jump seat. She then handed the note to Tina, who was sitting beside her, curiously watching the exchange between Flo and Cooper.

Flo sat in the aisle seat next to the hijacker and softly asked to see the bomb. Cooper gently opened his briefcase long enough for her to glimpse red cylinders attached to wires coated with red insulation, and a large battery. After closing his briefcase, Cooper told the stewardess to write down his demands. He wanted $200,000 in “negotiable American currency;” parachutes for two people (two primary and two reserve chutes); fuel trucks standing by in Seattle to refuel the aircraft upon arrival; and “No funny business, or I’ll do the job!”

Tina read the note and watched the occupants of row 18 uneasily. Cooper told Flo, “Tell the captain that I am taking charge of this plane. These are my demands. Let him read them, and then bring this note back to me. Understand? I want it back.”

The plane was still climbing as Flo pulled herself out of the aisle seat and glanced at Tina. With a slight motion of her head, she signaled Tina to sit next to the hijacker, in her stead. Quickly and calmly, Tina moved into the seat next to Cooper.

Flo handed Captain Scott the paper containing the hijacker’s demands. The pilot looked the note over and got a sinking feeling in his stomach. He picked up the radio and called in to the Northwest Orient Headquarters and explained the situation. Flo described the hijacker as “White, 6′1, black hair, 175 pounds, approximately 50, black suit, black raincoat, black briefcase.”

The leadership at Northwest decided to meet the air pirate’s demands and told Captain Scott to put the plane in a holding pattern around Seattle. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was called, and one of their best agents was assigned the case. Ralph Himmelsbach was the agent’s name. Agent Himmelsbach was raised in Portland, Oregon. He joined the Army Air Force in 1943 and became a pilot. Earlier in his career with the FBI, he had been stationed in Texas, Illinois and Alaska, before being assigned to the Portland office in 1962. His caseload regularly included kidnapping, extortion, bank robbery and air piracy.

When the jet reached the Seattle suburbs, Captain Scott put the hijacked 727 in a holding pattern and informed the passengers that they were encountering minor mechanical difficulties and they would need to burn off some fuel before they landed. The inconvenienced passengers accepted the information calmly, and none of them even realized they were being hijacked.

While circling Seattle, the 727’s crew radioed Cooper’s demands to the authorities. The hijacker wanted the aircraft to park in an “isolated” area and only the fuel truck, air-stair truck, and an automobile with the money and chutes would be allowed to approach the aircraft. He also specified that vehicles with beacons or flashing red lights were not allowed to approach the aircraft. The fuel truck was to begin refueling the plane as soon as the engines shut down.

Cooper also demanded that Stewardess Tina Mucklow would leave the airplane (only her), pick up the money, then return for chutes. He must see the knapsack with the money before any other steps would be taken. During that time, Tina and Cooper sat together. They must have built some type of trust or understanding. Maybe Tina reminded Cooper of someone he had cared for deeply. Later, while being debriefed about the incident, Tina recollected, “He wasn’t nervous. He seemed rather nice. He was never cruel or nasty. He was thoughtful and calm.” Cooper made it clear that he trusted Tina, and wanted only her to assist him with his mission. He gave a deadline of 7:00 p.m. for all his demands to be met.

The authorities agreed that the captain was in full command and all of Cooper’s requests and wishes would be honored. The 727’s crew took great pains to gain the hijacker’s confidence by giving him full information and cooperation.

The 727 circled for more than an hour, while Northwest officials contacted federal authorities and discussed Cooper’s demands. The hijacked 727 was a mid-size narrow-body, three-engine jet aircraft built for Northwest Orient Airlines by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. All three engines were located near the tail group of the aircraft. It could carry up to 149 passengers. Created for short and medium length flights, the 727 can use relatively short runways at smaller and medium sized airports. The three large Pratt & Whitney jet engines resided below the T-tail, one on each side of the fuselage, and one atop the fuselage. The 727 was Boeing’s only aircraft with three jet engines.

The Boeing 727 came equipped with a built in staircase in the rear of the jet’s fuselage, which was sometimes referred to as the “aft stairs.” The aft stairs could be lowered or raised from inside the jet, and passengers could disembark via the planes own steps. Because it didn’t need a terminal, or require a mobile staircase, the jet was more suitable for airports that had not yet modernized and added new terminals.

Upon receiving the hijacker’s demands, the FBI jumped into action, immediately rounding up the requested money and parachutes. Cooper never specified what denomination he wanted the ransom in, so the FBI decided to give him the entire $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills, 10,000 of them, making the ransom harder to handle and hopefully slowing the hijacker down enough for the authorities to make their move and capture him, or kill him outright. If the authorities gave the ransom in $100 dollar bills, then the knapsack Cooper requested would only weigh in the neighborhood of five pounds, but the knapsack full of twenties weighed an unwieldy twenty-two pounds.

A package that heavy could very likely throw a parachutist off balance during his free fall, and put him into a dangerous spin. The money the FBI collected was actually set aside for such circumstances. Each twenty-dollar bill was photographed so there would be a record of each bill’s serial number. The list of serial numbers would then be disseminated to banks around the country, so if a Cooper bill appeared, the FBI could reverse investigate the money trail, leading them to the hijacker.

The parachutes were commandeered at McChord Air Force Base. They were military model chutes. Because Cooper requested parachutes for two people, the authorities couldn’t take the chance of sabotaging the chutes and end up inadvertently killing an innocent hostage, in case the skyjacker decided to take a hostage with him.

With the ransom money and parachutes collected, Flight 305 was cleared for landing, and with Cooper’s blessing, proceeded to touch down on the runway. The 727 didn’t taxi to its usual terminal, but instead rolled to a well-lit area away from other planes and buildings. Rolling stairs were dispatched to the 727, so unwary passengers could disembark through the forward door, instead of the rear stairs. This way, passengers would not have to walk by the hijacker, avoiding the possibility of a confrontation or accidental detonation of the bomb.

Tina exited via the mobile stairs at the front of the plane and met the courier who was carrying the white bag containing the $200,000 ransom. The bag was a white canvas bank bag with no pull strings, eyelets or attachment points. It was hard to manage the money sack, by design. Tina also retrieved the parachutes and brought them to Cooper. The fuel truck started the refueling process almost immediately. The passengers and other stewardesses were allowed to exit the 727, but Tina stayed onboard with Cooper.

Flight 305, a Northwest Orient Airlines 727, on the tarmac during the Cooper hijacking.

Cooper inspected the cash. He was perturbed that he had asked for a knapsack (back pack), and they had given him an ordinary bank bag without any attachment points, such as eyelets or straps, thus making it much more difficult for him to carry it when he would attempt to escape with it. Cooper also inspected the parachutes. He didn’t like what he saw. He had Tina inform the flight crew that he was demanding another pair of main chutes, and another pair of back-up chutes, this time civilian models, delivered to the plane. The authorities immediately scrambled to find four more parachutes and Cooper lit up another Raleigh cigarette and waited.

Authorities located four more parachutes at a local skydiving school. They were loaded into a taxi and hustled to the airport. The replacement chutes were delivered to the tarmac, and Tina again descended the stairs to retrieve them and brought them to Cooper. This time Cooper was satisfied with the chutes.

The first fuel truck ran out of fuel. Captain Scott immediately requested a second truck, with a third one to be standing by. The considerable delay in getting a full load of fuel upset Cooper, and Captain Scott reported that the hijacker was getting “nervous” and had stated, “Let’s get the show on the road!”

Cooper specified that he wanted to go to Mexico City non-stop, and the aircraft configuration must be landing gear down, flaps set at 15 degrees, the aft entry door must be open at all times, and that the aft stairs must be fully extended before take-off. The authorities on the ground advised the cockpit crew that a non-stop flight from Seattle to Mexico was impossible with the landing gear down and the flaps set at 15 degrees because of fuel use. They also advised that take-off with the aft stairs fully extended was impossible due to inability to rotate the airplane on takeoff. When the message was relayed to Cooper, he asked that the air-stairs be partially extended prior to takeoff. The authorities advised this was also impossible since stairs could not be held in any intermediate position.