Originally Posted by
BeanTownBoy
I, too, remember boarding and disembarking via the back stairs in the day. There's something tugging in the back of my memory that the back stairs on U.S. planes were sealed off for a time as a direct result of D.B. Cooper. Cargojon and others: does this ring a bell as well?
IIRC, as a result of D.B. Cooper, the aft stairs were temporarily sealed off until the carriers installed a system that prevented the stairs from being opened while in flight.