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With the hijacker's agreement, the plane ultimately took off for Reno, ostensibly a refueling stop en route to Mexico. Yet it is clear that the hijacker knew precisely what he was about. He ordered the plane to be flown at less than 10,000 ft. and at 200 m.p.h., an extremely slow cruising speed. He also ordered the rear door to be left unlocked. Of all U.S. commercial airliners, only the 727 has a door beneath the tail that would permit a reasonably safe parachute jump. Then he locked Miss Mucklow in the forward cabin with the crew, and was not seen again. Five planes trailed the jet from Seattle, but no one saw the hijacker jump. If he fell free in the dark for more than a few hundred feet, however, he would have been almost impossible to spot.
Four-State Manhunt. FBI officials estimate that he dropped into an open area in the wilderness some 35 miles north of Portland. The location was determined by the time of his jump, which probably occurred when a red light went on in the cockpit, indicating a drop in cabin pressure. The hijacker must have opened the rear door at that point.
A four-state manhunt was immediately launched. FBI agents, along with more than 30 officers of the Clark and Cowlitz county sheriff's departments, set up a command post and fanned out through a thickly timbered corridor 15 miles long and ten miles wide near the towns of Longview and Ariel in southwest Washington. The area is densely forested enough to present a serious hazard to the jumper if he did not make the clearing. Said Undersheriff Tom McDowell: "We're either looking for a parachute or a hole in the ground."
The 3rd Armored Cavalry joined the search from the air, sending out two helicopters. But the hijacker also managed to pick ideally inclement weather to cover his escape. Sullen clouds rolled in from the Pacific, grounding the choppers until a couple of hours before darkness. By week's end officers were scratching their heads and wondering where to look next for the dapper, audacious fellow with $200,000 to spend.