A FORMER flight attendant has recalled her terrifying ordeal through the well-known DB Cooper airplane hijacking.
Fifty years after it occurred, Tina Mucklow has spoken out concerning the DB Cooper airplane hijacking in 1971, forward of a brand new movie anticipated to enter manufacturing subsequent 12 months.
Aged simply 22 on the time, Tina was a flight attendant onboard a airplane travelling from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington with 36 passengers onboard.
Because the airplane was getting ready to take off, one in all Tina's colleagues bought up and moved seats to take a seat subsequent to DB Cooper, who was in a seat beneath the identify Dan Cooper and holding a suitcase.
Whereas she was shifting, the flight attendant dropped a observe at Tina's ft.
As reported in The Unbiased, Tina stated: "I picked it up, and it mainly stated, 'Miss, I've a bomb, come sit subsequent to me, you are being hijacked'."
It was as a result of her colleague had moved to take a seat subsequent to the hijacker, which was "completely not regular process" that Tina knew the risk was actual.
Tina stated: "He opened the briefcase and confirmed me the bomb. He defined how it could work.
"I believe I used to be in all probability in shock. Then he had his hand within the briefcase, sort of closed it, and seemed out the window.
"I used to be like 'what am I going to should do to deal with the scenario? What am I going to should expertise?
"There will likely be an explosive decompression. Stuff's going to fly within the cabin.
"After which, rapidly, I used to be like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to have to fret about any of this. I’m not going to be right here.’ When that hit me within the face, I attempted to acknowledge that my life was in all probability on the finish.
"And my first thought was I wished to run, which is a wonderfully regular response. However there was no place to run."
DB Cooper handed Tina a second observe together with his calls for of $200,000 in $20 notes and 4 parachutes.
She took the observe to the pilots who requested air site visitors management for an space they might circle whereas the cash and parachutes had been being collected.
Tina stated they had been informed to maintain flying over a physique of water close to Seattle, "as a result of if something occurred, they did not need us to rain down on folks."
In the meantime, the opposite passengers on board had no concept something uncommon was happening, and Tina saved it that means.
She stated: "I could not give away that we had been coping with a life-and-death scenario again right here."
Tina labored exhausting to maintain DB Cooper calm whereas his calls for had been met.
She stated: "There have been a number of occasions when he bought actually upset and I attempted to maintain him calm and reiterate that we had been doing the perfect we may and attempting to offer him as a lot data as attainable."
Quickly a plan was made to land the airplane and acquire the cash and parachutes. The airplane would then refuel and take off once more, so DB Cooper may leap out utilizing one of many parachutes.
Tina was chosen to depart the airplane and go and decide up the money from the airline's operation supervisor for Seattle, and stated she needed to "blink again tears" earlier than taking the cash over to the airplane.
'LIFE AND DEATH SITUATION'
When she bought again on board, she requested DB Cooper if the passengers may depart, which he agreed to, which left simply Tina and the three pilots with the hijacker.
DB Cooper demanded when the airplane took off once more that the door keep open in order that he may escape, which Tina stated made the cabin utterly black and "loud and eerie".
After asking Tina to decrease the steps, she was then informed to go within the cockpit till the airplane landed in Nevada - solely realising after they landed that he had jumped from the airplane.
They had been greeted by the FBI after they disembarked, after which bought into vehicles.
Tina stated it was when she bought into the protected automobile that "the dam broke" and she or he was overwhelmed by what had occurred.
Fifty years on, Tina has mirrored on how the media has picked up on the hijacking, the place DB Cooper has been painted a hero for managing to flee.
She stated: "It has been a tragic journey. To suppose that any individual who was a prison and put the lives of crew and the passengers in danger, plus these of any variety of folks on the bottom, can be checked out as a hero."
For years Tina was inundated with calls and letters from folks determined to resolve the case, however she by no means wished to be concerned.
Nevertheless, she is now able to share her story, and it is going to be informed in a movie titled Nod If You Perceive, which is predicted to enter manufacturing in 2022.
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