Livermore Man Recaps Encounter With D.B. Cooper

As the familiar story goes, on Thanksgiving eve in 1971 mystery man "D.B. Cooper" hijacked a Northwestern flight for $200,000 before parachuting off into oblivion.

FBI officials recently said they have new leads on the case that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades.

It also is a case Livermore resident Jack Almstad is all too familiar with. He should know. He was on the plane.

Almstad, now 76, remembers the plane circling for about an hour between Portland and Seattle when passengers became curious.

"The stewardess told us there was some problem with the landing gear," Almstad said in an interview with Patch Friday.

At one point during the flight, passengers were told to move forward and toward the front of the plane, he said.

Almstad, who was sitting near the back, said he didn't move — he was deep into reading a book.

"I really didn't think anything of it," he said. "I was just reading my book."

Almstad would later get up to use the men's restroom.

"The lavatory was occupied and there was a man and stewardess sitting nearby," Almstad said. "I said, 'Well if we stay long enough we can have Thanksgiving dinner up here.' "

The man, who he believes was D.B. Cooper, turned back and smiled at him.

Almstad said when the plane landed it stayed at the end of the runway and didn't approach a terminal.

A refueling truck and bus pulled up next to the plane. A person also entered the plane.

"They walked down the aisle and it looked like they were holding a pillow slip," Almstad said. "It had jagged points. Looked like a bag of bricks."

The bag likely contained the $200,000 ransom D.B. Cooper demanded, Almstad said.

Passengers were notified of the hijacking after they got off the plane and were interviewed by the FBI.

As for D.B. Cooper?

"He jumped off somehow," Almstad said.