Wait, How Did It Happen Again?

One question that comes up often: How does anyone jump out of a commercial airliner? Through the little windows by our seats? The front door? The answer is neither. Decades ago, Boeing designed their 727 mid-range jets with stairs in the very rear of the cabin. Aftstairs, they were called. The reason was airports. In the late 1960's, American cities were building bigger airports and expanding their runways to make room for the jumbo jet, or 747. In comparison, the smaller and more nimble 727 was used to accommodate smaller cities that had yet to build big airports and the aftstairs in the back were used to load passengers on the runway.

 

After Cooper's jump, federal agents learned the aftstairs had been used for another purpose. Through front groups, officials disclosed to the authorities hunting Cooper that the CIA, through front groups like Air America, had used the Boeing 727 and its aftstairs to drop cargo and parachutists in covert missions during Vietnam. Was Cooper an ex-rogue CIA agent involved with Air America or another black ops contractor? Here is a photo of what the aftstairs look like on Northwest N467US, the actual plane that was hijacked on November 24th, 1971.