Christiansen (white shirt) and Geestman (print shirt) circa 1951. Location: Northwest Airlines' maintainance station on remote Shemya Island in the Aleutians. This is where they first met. Geestman was the mechanic, Christiansen was a general laborer working under him, helping refuel and oil the incoming planes. Although Geestman only served on Shemya for about a year, his friend Ken stayed there almost five years. When Ken returned to Seattle and became a purser for Northwest Airlines, the two men were reunited and became friends for life. Christiansen settled in the Bonney Lake, WA area. When Christiansen was dying in 1994, Geestman made a visit to his bedside.
Bernie Geestman being questioned by the cast of 'Brad Meltzer's Decoded' in October 2010. He refused to answer the most important question of all: 'Where were you the day of the hijacking?' He claimed earlier that Foss Tugs in Seattle had him gone to sea for months at a time the year of the hijacking. Foss executives said otherwise.
Ken Christiansen is a strong suspect in the only unsolved skyjacking in U.S. history: the D. B. Cooper case. Could a former Army paratrooper and an employee of the hijacked airline (Northwest Airlines) actually pull it off and escape discovery? Maybe. There's a fair amount of evidence and witness testimony that he may have done just that, with the help of his lifelong friend Bernie Geestman.
On the other hand, a bit of humor helps keep things in perspective:
The Ballad of K.P. Christiansen
Let me tell ya all a story ‘bout a man named Ken
Slavin' on a airline, hardly makin’ any bread
Then one day he was not around the crew
And into his mind popped a little thought or two…
Dollar bills…lots of them…no movie stars
Well the first thing you know Ken’s puttin’ up a dare
He’s tellin’ buddy Bernie ‘We can pull it off I SWEAR!
Just drop me off in Portland and I will say goodbye,
And I won’t come back to see ya ‘till I’ve fooled the F.B.I!’
Northwest Airlines…pretty stews…bourbon and smokes
It wasn’t very long ‘till Ken got all the cash,
A bunch of parachutes and now it’s time to dash
Then somewhere he finally took his cue,
Went jumpin' out the back and takin’ what was due…
Twenties, that is...lots of cash…no movie stars
(Faster)
Well now it’s time to say goodbye to Ken and all his kin
And they would like to thank Northwest for kindly givin’ in
You’re all invited to the Bon-ney Lake lo-cal-i-ty,
To have a heapin’ helpin’ of their hos-pi-tal-i-ty…
Bonney Lake, that is…sit a spell…take yer shoes off.
Ya’ll come back now…hear?
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