Skyjack: The Hunt for D. B. Cooper by Geoffrey Gray Read Free Book Online Page B

32.”
    Dispatch again.
    “On the 164 … we’ve learned the suspect has an explosive device.”
    Himmelsbach leans on the horn. Bastards, let’s move. The guy has a bomb!
    Another one? Was this a copycat? Ten days ago, a Canadian man slipped on a mask, brandished a shotgun, and threatened to blow up an Air Canada flight with forty pounds of plastic explosives. The man, Paul Cini, told the flight crew he was a member of the Irish Republican Army (he wasn’t) and wanted the plane rerouted to Ireland. He also demanded $1.5 million in cash. He couldn’t make up his mind though. He wanted the pilots to refuel in Saskatchewan and then changed the location to Great Falls, Montana, where the governor negotiated a lower ransom of $50,000. On the ground in Great Falls, the hijacker listened to the news of his hijacking on the radio in real time, and in glee, passengers later reported, as if he had achieved his fifteen minutes of fame.
    Cini then demanded the pilots fly him to New York. In the air, Cini then shocked the crew and passengers by stepping into the harness of a parachute. The plane was a DC-8, which like the Boeing 727 had aftstairs that could be opened during flight.
    Cini nearly made it. As he was planning to jump, according to news reports, the Air Canada purser on the flight “let him have it with a fire ax.”
    The story of Cini, who was rushed to the emergency room after the plane landed, was national news. Images of the bloodied hijacker, who was too foolish and deranged to execute his daring escape with $50,000, also ran on the national news.
    Agent Himmelsbach cursed the media outlets for publishing them. Like bank robbers, Cini could inspire others to board planes withbombs and crazy demands, hold the passengers hostage, and attempt to make a getaway via parachute.

    In Seattle, the Bureau field office is located in an old bank downtown, a few blocks from the piers off Alaskan Way. The boss, J. Earl Milnes, steps out of his office.
    The first agent he sees is Bob Fuhrman, a recent transfer. Fuhrman is trained as an accountant. Hoover wants only lawyers and accountants to be G-men.
    Milnes points a finger at Fuhrman. “You,” he says. “Drive me to the airport.”
    Fuhrman follows Milnes out to an ummarked car and turns over the keys. The radio is on. Voices are on the frequency. What is the procedure for hijackings? Should the feds cooperate with the hijacker and give him $200,000 and parachutes? Should they storm the plane, take him out? Is it even their responsibility to make the decision?
    The airlines and agencies are feuding over how to handle skyjackings. Who is in control? At the FAA, officials argue that it is the pilot who is responsible for the plane and its passengers. At the FBI, Hoover argues that once a plane lands, the hijacker has violated federal air piracy laws; therefore, he is within the Bureau’s jurisdiction and should be apprehended immediately. It’s too dangerous to think otherwise. What if the hijacker had a manic episode, killed the pilot, and crashed the plane into downtown Cleveland? Hundreds of bystanders would die in the explosion. Or worse. What if hijackers demanded that pilots fly airplanes into skyscrapers?
    In New York, tenants have already moved into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Construction on the South Tower is almost finished. With a hijacker at the controls, a domestic airplane becomes its own bomb. Thousands could die.
    The jockeying over who controls a hijacked plane unfolded onlyweeks before on the front pages. A charter jet to the Bahamas was taken over by a man with a gun and a bomb.
    Onboard, the flight crew could see the man was delusional. The captain begged Bureau agents to let them refuel. He felt that if the plane was back in the air, the armed hijacker would relax and nobody would get injured.
    After landing in Florida to refuel, the request was denied. Agents fired gunshots at the plane’s tires. The skyjacker panicked. He fatally