28-Year-Old Took Over a Passenger Plane, Then Parachuted Away with $500K. ‘It Was Insane,’ 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 a parachute

• McNally was captured by the FBI five days later and was released in 2010 after spending nearly four decades in federal prison during which he made numerous escape attempts, including one in which he hijacked a helicopter and left a woman dead.

• Looking back on his life, the 81-year-old ex-con admits he actually gave up his life “for a piece of paper”

On the morning of June 1972, with hours before sunrise, Martin McNally finally summoned the courage to jump out of the back of the Boeing 727 he had hijacked as the plane roared through central Indiana at 300 mph.

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

Around his waist was a bag filled with $502,000. When McNally’s backup parachute – provided by FBI agents at McNally’s request – opened, it struck him violently in the head, causing his face to bleed and bruise.

To make matters worse for him, the cash was ripped from his waist and disappeared into the darkness.

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

Things only got worse for McNally from that point on, with his high-altitude jump occurring during the so-called “golden age” of hijackings.

From 1968 to 1972, more than 300 jet aircraft were commandeered in the United States, forcing officials to tighten security 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 in prison, the 81-year-old became reflective and remorseful, but also colorful. “It’s crazy. I was stupid,” said McNally, whose life was documented in the documentary American hijackersstreaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and other platforms. “I shouldn’t have done this at all.”

McNally, the son of a popular shoe salesman in Wyandotte, Michigan, decided to become a hijacker after hearing a broadcast about the infamous DB Cooper. In November 1971, DB Cooper made headlines when he jumped from a jet near Portland, Oregon and disappeared with $200,000. (The case has not yet been solved, and his true identity is unknown.)

The details of Cooper’s crimes seemed too alluring to McNally, a high school dropout who became a military aircraft electrician and had been doing odd jobs and racketeering since leaving the Army.

After learning about Cooper’s accomplishments, he asked himself, “What could be easier?”

Seven months after the Cooper hijacking, on June 23, 1972, McNally armed himself with a sawn-off .45 rifle and smoke grenades in his briefcase, as well as an alias and disguise, and took control of an American Airlines plane flying from St. Louis to Oklahoma with about 100 passengers on board.

The situation quickly fell apart.

The flight had to return to Missouri so authorities could raise the funds McNally needed. News broadcasts began to feature his exploits, and a local vigilante decided to crash his Cadillac into the plane on the tarmac. The stunt failed, and McNally agreed to release all but one of the hostages he was holding in exchange for a new plane with a new crew to take him to the Canadian border.

Police caught him just five days after he was on the run after skydiving over Indiana. He only had $13 in hand instead of the original $500,000 ransom.

Six years later, while in custody in Marion, Illinois, he participated in a failed jailbreak that resulted in the death of Barbara Oswald and the brief incarceration of her teenage daughter Robin. Out of love for another prisoner, Oswald attempts to land a hijacked helicopter inside the prison, only to be killed by the pilot she kidnapped.

McNally is still reeling from her death.

“That’s why I’m telling my story,” he said, “to restore the reputations of Barbara and Robin. Neither of them had criminal tendencies. We were lying to them.”

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McNally’s life since parole has been unusually quiet, and he said he hasn’t had another run-in with the law in years. He said he even became friends with a flight attendant on a plane he hijacked decades ago.

“I take care of my sister’s 93-year-old mother-in-law and live with my two cats without any worries,” McNally added.

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

When asked what he would say to other would-be outlaws, he didn’t mince words: “Forget the crap. You’re not going to get away with it, especially now. Get an education, stay clean, get a decent job.”

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