28-year-old hijacks passenger plane, then parachutes with $500K. ‘It was crazy,’ he says (Exclusive)

Need to know

• Inspired by the infamous DB Cooper case, Martin McNally hijacked American Airlines Flight 119 in 1972, demanding $500,000 and parachutes.

• Captured by the FBI five days later, McNally spent nearly four decades in federal prison — during which he was involved in escape attempts, including a helicopter hijacking that killed a woman — before being released in 2010.

• Looking back on his life, the 81-year-old ex-con admits he essentially threw his life away “for a bunch of paper.”

Sunrise was still hours away on a June 1972 morning when Martin McNally finally summoned the nerve to jump out of the back of the Boeing 727 he had hijacked as it roared over central Indiana at 300 mph.

The then-28-year-old Navy veteran had never worn a parachute before and, seconds later, found himself tumbling uncontrollably through the sky.

A bag filled with $502,000 was strapped to his waist. When McNally’s reserve chute—supplied by an FBI agent as part of McNally’s demand—opened, it hit him in the head, causing blood and facial injuries.

Worse for him, the cash was ripped from his waist and disappeared into the darkness.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he recalls now. “I was screaming, ‘The money’s gone!’ It was the first and only time I thought about suicide.

Things got worse from there for McNally, whose high-altitude caper came during the so-called “golden age” of skyjacking.

More than 300 jets were commandeered in the U.S. from 1968 to 1972, forcing officials to increase security measures at airports across the country.McNally was sentenced to two life sentences for air piracy and spent nearly four decades in prison before being paroled in 2010.

During his years behind bars, the 81-year-old became reflective and remorseful, though no less colorful. “It was crazy. I was crazy,” says McNally, whose life is chronicled in the documentary American SkyjackerStreaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and other platforms. “I never had to do this.”

Wyandotte, Mich. The son of a well-liked shoe salesman, McNally decided to become a skyjacker after listening to a radio broadcast about the infamous DB Cooper, who made his way to Portland, Ore. Made headlines when he jumped from a nearby jet, and disappeared with $200,000 in November 1971. (His identity is unknown.)

The details of Cooper’s crimes seemed alluring to McNally, a high school dropout turned military-aircraft electrician who pursued odd jobs and scams since his discharge.

After Cooper realized what he had pulled, he asked himself, “Could it be easier?”

Seven months after Cooper’s kidnapping, on June 23, 1972, McNally armed himself with a .45 rifle and smoke bombs in a briefcase, as well as a fake name and disguise, and took control of an American Airlines jet from St. Louis carrying about 100 passengers.

The situation unfolded quickly.

Authorities had to fly back to Missouri so McNally could collect the money he needed. News broadcasts began playing word of his exploits, and a local vigilante decided to ram his Cadillac into a jetty on the tarmac. The stunt failed, and McNally agreed to release all but one of the hostages in exchange for a new plane with a new crew to take him to the Canadian border.

After parachuting into Indiana, he was on the line for five days before police caught him. Instead of the original half million in ransom, he only had $13.

Six years later, Marion, Ill. While in custody, he was involved in a failed escape attempt that resulted in the death of Barbara Oswald—and the brief imprisonment of her teenage daughter Robin—after Oswald attempted to land a helicopter hijacked in a prison in love with another inmate, and the pilot killed Kidna.

McNally is still traumatized by her death.

“That’s why I’m telling my story,” he says, “to rehabilitate Barbara and Robin. Neither of them were criminally inclined. We were defrauding them.”

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Life since parole has been uncharacteristically quiet for McNally, who says he hasn’t had another run-in with the law in years. He even became friends with one of the stewardesses on the plane he captured decades ago, he says.

“I take care of my sister’s 93-year-old mother-in-law, live with my two cats and have no worries,” adds McNally.

Looking back on his pursuit of wealth, McNally says he threw his life away “for a bunch of paper.”

When asked what he wants other outlaws to say, he’s coy: “Forget about that shit. You don’t get away with it, especially these days. Get an education, stay clean, and get a good job.”

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