A man imprisoned for a 1976 school bus kidnapping was approved for parole on his 20th hearing.

James Schoenfeld, his brother and another man were found guilty in 1976 for kidnapping a busload of schoolchildren from Chowchilla, California. After 39 years and 20 parole hearings, Schoenfeld received an initial approval for parole this week, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The three men forced 26 children aged 5 to 14 and the bus driver into a hole leading into a moving van that had been buried in a rock quarry 100 miles away. The van was apparently full of mattresses, food, water and fans.

Their plan to demand $5 million in ransom never came to fruition as the captives managed to escape after being buried in the quarry for 16 hours.

The California Department of Corrections said that the initial approval for parole on Wednesday is only the beginning to a long process to fully determine whether or not Schoenfeld will be released.

Schoenfeld’s brother Richard Schoenfeld was released on parole back in 2012 and their other partner in crime, Woods, remains incarcerated after many parole hearings. There has been no reason released as to why the outcome was different this time for Schoenfeld.

The three men were in their 20’s at the time the kidnapping took place. At that time, they were thought to have been considered fairly well-off, but were suffering a big loss from a real estate project and were desperate to make some easy money.

The kidnappers were all convicted in the kidnapping and all sentenced to life in prison.

Schoenfeld was approved for parole by a two-member panel of the state Board of Parole Hearings. After the board’s legal staff reviews all of the information, the governor will be the one making an independent decision about his parole.