WA WA - D.B. Cooper hijacking mystery, 24 Nov 1971 - #2

[Albert18]

where is this?? (the sketch of this guy?) - never heard of Kenny?? Where did I miss that? Can you provide a link to this sketch, Albert? TIA!

It was in an article in New York Magazine.

http://nymag.com/news/features/39593/

The negatives for Kenny are his height, his skin color, he worked for Northwest so wouldn't he be afraid somebody would recognize him, and as OD pointed out, wouldn't he know how to lower the rear stairs.

The article has a good picture of the airplane while it is sitting on the ground in Seattle during the hijacking. Can't quite see Coop though.

On page three of the article you can see a picture of Florence Schaffner's hairdo at the time of the hijacking. Oh the 70's!

I've also seen what is said to be a revised sketch that Florence Schaffner had done in 1988. A much different looking Dan Cooper.

 

[Old Dominion]

Himmelsbach: "If I was still on duty and it were up to me, I’d say, ‘This guy is a ‘must investigate.’”

Really...? Even though by Himmy's own words he's "too short" , "too light" and has the "wrong hair color"?? Seems to me that if 8 years is any indicator, this guy wouldn' t even rate a POI.

OD

 

[Niner]

so.... the FBI puts put a notice that they are still looking for D.B. Cooper - and nothing happened?? :waitasec:

Rightcoast - did anyone get in touch with you??? Just curious if anything panned out...

And I thought I'd bring this thread back to the first page - as it was buried way back in January!

 

[Pandora]

AMBOY, Wash. - There could be a major break in the biggest crime mystery in Northwest history.The FBI in Seattle is beginning analysis of a long-buried parachute - the same type used by skyjacker D.B. Cooper when he jumped from an Northwest Orient Airlines 727 with a 25 pound money bag containing 200-thousand dollars ransom on Thanksgiving eve 1971.

The children of a Clark County contractor found the parachute buried in a field that their father has recently plowed for a road. The chute is white and conical shaped, dirty and deteriorated. Seattle Agent Larry Carr will clean it and search for a label, which could match the chute to a companion reserve chute left behind by Cooper in the plane.

Carr, who's now in charge of the Cooper case, says the parachute was found near the center of the original jump zone identified by searchers in November 1971, between the towns of Ariel and Amboy, Washington. In 1980, a family on a picnic found 58-hundred dollars of the loot on a Columbia River beach, near Vancouver. How it got there is another mystery. Some scientists believed the money bag traveled down the Washougal River, which is upstream from the beach, miles from where this parachute was recently found.



More at link:
http://www.koin.com/content/news/to...ntent_id=c8cdd7ec-23d8-4c3d-8dfd-b3d4851101a4

 

[ttrachel04]

bump !!!

here's the cnn link

http://www.kirotv.com/news/15703294/detail.html

after this many years, could the parachute produce any leads?

the only thing i can think of is if a body is found with the parachute (they said some of it is buried). ive read theories where some think that cooper perished when he jumped.

 

[kylie]

But if he had died, wouldn't they have found his body or bones by now? And have they made a map to see where that money was found years ago compared to where the parachute was found? This could be telling.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/15703294/detail.html

 

[mihaff]

Very interesting. You would think if he was dead like the FBI thinks, his bones would be near the parachute site. but i guess the bones could long be lost even if they were there. Still an interesting development.

 

[HollywoodBound]

The FBI is analyzing a torn, tangled parachute found buried by children in southwest Washington to determine whether it might have been used by famed plane hijacker D.B. Cooper, the agency said Tuesday.
Children playing outside their home near Amboy found the chute's fabric sticking up from the ground in an area where their father had been grading a road, agent Larry Carr said. They pulled it out as far as they could, then cut the parachute's ropes with scissors.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080326/ap_on_re_us/db_cooper

 

[LinasK]

This was just on my local news about the parachute, so I came here to see if there was anything on it. Too bad we don't have Rightcoast's view...

 

[aussie_mum]

I just saw this too, and came into find out if anyone had the inside scoop, lol.

 

[kline]

apparently the FBI wants to analyze the chute and determine wether it is of a type used by Cooper before commiting to any serious digging.
And the report I read said the money found in the '80's couldnt have gotten from where this chute was found to its place by the river by natural means...such as being washed there by water ect.

 

[HollywoodBound]

I wonder how far away this parachute was from the money that was dug up and determined to be Cooper's?

I wonder if the parachute looked intentionally buried or was it buried by years of foliage?

 

[angelmom]

I wonder how far away this parachute was from the money that was dug up and determined to be Cooper's?

I wonder if the parachute looked intentionally buried or was it buried by years of foliage?

http://www.comcast.net/news/articles/national/2008/03/26/DB.Cooper/


If it is Cooper's parachute, that will solve one mystery — where he apparently landed — but it will raise another, Carr said.

In 1980, a family on a picnic found $5,880 of Cooper's money in a bag on a Columbia River beach, near Vancouver. Some investigators believed it might have been washed down to the beach by the Washougal River. But if Cooper landed near Amboy and stashed the money bag there, there's no way it could have naturally reached the Washougal.

"If this is D.B. Cooper's parachute, the money could not have arrived at its discovery location by natural means," Carr said. "That whole theory is out the window."

 

[Niner]

gosh, you all are way ahead of me... I came over to post about finding the parachute - but you all are right on!! :clap:

Personally - I don't think D.B. Cooper died when he jumped... I believe Rightcoast and Leftcoast!!

 

[Niner]

Here's an article from Assoc. Press just 4 hours ago:
SEATTLE (AP) — Hoping to solve at least part of a 36-year-old mystery, the FBI is analyzing a torn, tangled parachute found in southwest Washington to determine if it belonged to famed plane hijacker D.B. Cooper.

Children playing outside their home near Amboy found the chute's fabric sticking up from the ground in an area where their father had been grading a road, agent Larry Carr said Tuesday. They pulled it out as far as they could, then cut the parachute's ropes with scissors.

The children had seen recent media coverage of the case — the FBI launched a publicity campaign last fall, hoping to generate tips on the unsolved highjacking — and they urged their dad to call the agency.

"When we went to the public, the whole idea was that the public is going to bring the answers to us," Carr said. "This is exactly what we were hoping for."

In November 1971, a man identifying himself as Dan Cooper — later mistakenly but enduringly identified as D.B. Cooper — hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle, claiming he had a bomb.

When the plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and asked to be flown to Mexico. On the flight to Mexico City, he apparently took the cash and parachuted from the plane's back stairs somewhere near the Oregon border.

Agents doubt he survived because conditions were poor and the terrain was rough, but few signs of his fate have been found.

Carr spoke with the children's father, whom he declined to identify, early this month and learned the chute was white, the same color as Cooper's.

And when Carr overlaid the family's address onto a map investigators made in the early days of the investigation, he learned another encouraging fact: They lived right in Cooper's most probable landing zone, between Green and Bald mountains.

Carr hopped in his car and drove down. He dug around the property for about 45 minutes, unsuccessfully looking for a harness or other remains from the parachute, but the children weren't home, and the father wasn't sure exactly where they found it.

There are no obvious markings on the parachute to indicate whether it's the type Cooper used, a Navy Backpack 6 with a 26-foot canopy, Carr said. He's hoping a member of the public who has expertise in the parachutes will come forward and confirm whether it's the right kind before the FBI bothers to excavate the property. Barring that, the agency could turn to scientific analysis of the fabric.

"We've got to be pretty darn sure we're not wasting time and money here," he said.

If it is Cooper's parachute, that will solve one mystery — where he apparently landed — but it will raise another, Carr said.

In 1980, a family on a picnic found $5,880 of Cooper's money in a bag on a Columbia River beach, near Vancouver. Some investigators believed it might have been washed down to the beach by the Washougal River. But if Cooper landed near Amboy and stashed the money bag there, there's no way it could have naturally reached the Washougal.

"If this is D.B. Cooper's parachute, the money could not have arrived at its discovery location by natural means," Carr said. "That whole theory is out the window."

 

[kline]

I dont know where they came up with the parachutes they gave Cooper,hopefully they can be identified.
It does occur to me though that here in the Northwest(im in Idaho) The US Forest Service has been dropping smoke jumpers on forest fires since the late 1940's.
The Parachutes were supplied by whichever manufacturer managed to lowbid the contract with the government.
The parachutes generally werent packed out so this one could easily be one of those.Im sure that occured to the FBI.

 

[LinasK]

And when Carr overlaid the family's address onto a map investigators made in the early days of the investigation, he learned another encouraging fact: They lived right in Cooper's most probable landing zone, between Green and Bald mountains.


If it is Cooper's parachute, that will solve one mystery — where he apparently landed — but it will raise another, Carr said.

In 1980, a family on a picnic found $5,880 of Cooper's money in a bag on a Columbia River beach, near Vancouver. Some investigators believed it might have been washed down to the beach by the Washougal River. But if Cooper landed near Amboy and stashed the money bag there, there's no way it could have naturally reached the Washougal.

"If this is D.B. Cooper's parachute, the money could not have arrived at its discovery location by natural means," Carr said. "That whole theory is out the window."

Didn't LeftCoast believe D.B. planted money on that shore to divert attention???:waitasec:

 

[ttrachel04]

Very interesting. You would think if he was dead like the FBI thinks, his bones would be near the parachute site. but i guess the bones could long be lost even if they were there. Still an interesting development.

my mistake ... the last article i had read (the night before) had suggested that the parachute was left at the site and some of it was even underground. i was thinking if that was the case, the body could be underground with the parachute.

i posted the CNN website w/o reading it to see any updates !! my bad ... i was late to class but didn't see any web links from cnn, nyt, foxnews, etc., so wanted to get one up!!

 

[ttrachel04]

anyone here a parachute expert ??

if so the fbi wants you to help figure out what type of parachute this ...

 

[snowmman]

My conclusion is in capitals at the bottom.

From web source:

"The parachute types specified by D.B. Cooper, according to author Gunther, were acquired from a sport parachute center in Issaquah, Washington-two standard emergency back-type and two chest-type auxiliary parachutes (the latter generally termed reserve chutes, for back-up emergency use if the main chute should malfunction when a sport parachutist was making a jump). The parachute center in Issaquah provided the two chest packs and Earl Cossey, a parachuting instructor at the Issaquah drop zone as well as an FAA Master Parachute Rigger, contacted at his nearby home, brought two back-type rigs from his parachute workshop there and delivered them to the parachute school."

Other sources indicate that military parachutes were first delivered, then refused by Cooper who asked for sport parachutes. Supposedly he even specified the name of a parachute school where they could get them. Unclear if this is true. Maybe the refused military chutes were just repacked in new rigs so they didn't automatically deploy. Cooper supposedly wanted a ripcord.

In any case, now the FBI has revealed that the main parachute, at least, was a "Navy NB6" or "Navy Backpack 6". This is the wrong acronym.
NB-6 is the correct acronym.
The FBI have said Cooper jumped with a chute with a 26 ft canopy. The NB-6 has a 26 foot conical canopy. It is easily identified because of 22 gores/lines. (which give it the conical shape)

The FBI has not said anything about the reserve chutes. It would be typical for the reserve chute to be like a T-7 or T-10. T-7's were 24 ft canopies.

While dated 1946 would imply the found canopy was old, it's possible a 1946 canopy was still being used as a reserve chute in the '70s.
Interestingly Cossey says that one of the reserve chutes was marked X because it was sewn shut as a classroom training aid. It probably had a real chute in it. It probably was an old chute.

So the found chute could have been Cooper's "sewn shut" reserve chute.
They'll quickly be able to say it wasn't the 26 ft NB-6 canopy. The 24 ft nylon canopies were quite common in 1946.

That 1946 parachute is likely a 42G2001, 24' canopy, made of nylon.
see:
http://books.google.com/books?id=BK...nAr1S2n&sig=5PscLGmKPBSjRJAoCKY2ykA8Ow0&hl=en


also see:

http://books.google.com/books?id=yd...IcxKeGl&sig=k5J63jZrHUlgC7UtygqDCnl8CgA&hl=en

the 42G2001 was the drawing number for the 24' canopy, in a number of backpack parachute assemblies from the time period. There was a 28' canopy also, but 24' was more common.


detailed specs on NB-6 are here
http://books.google.com/books?id=BKTuTXrXQu0C&pg=PA245&lpg=PA245&dq=%22nb+6%22+canopy&source=web&ots=n_mnAr7M4m&sig=IVVzc847PilsMBckDYH32xIAyjw&hl=en

note the NB-6 assembly has a 26' canopy as FBI says, but it has 22 gores. Makes it easy to identify. (22 lines)

The 26' canopy was conical rather than flat, because of the removal of the 4 gores.

AAF regulation 65-35 dated Aug 10, 1943 required all AAF canopies to be stamped with the fiscal year and a serial number. Which is why there is a date and serial number on the found canopy.

Apparently many of the canopies were made by a company called Pioneer Parachute Company or maybe Joe Smith Parachute Co.

Here's details on the NB-6 parachute system (page 176)
http://books.google.com/books?id=BK...rch_r&cad=1_1&sig=XgP4copzFp_5vR3tNv2IL8ChmZA


Interestingly, the FBI Agent Carr has shown in a recent video that the parachute left behind with cut strings, had a red canopy. (I believe it was the 2nd, functional reserve, that he cut the strings on)

Evidently they believe the canopy of the main one he jumped with (the NB-6) was white. But they've not said anything about the color of the reserve chute he jumped with.

WHY: BECAUSE IT WAS SEWN SHUT. PROBABLY NO ONE KNOWS THE COLOR OF THE RESERVE CHUTE HE JUMPED WITH, IT'S SIZE, OR ANYTHING ABOUT IT!

There are some mistaken web pages that say the main chute he jumped with was the "marked X" "training" "sewn shut"
canopy. But it seems clear that Earl Cossey said it was a reserve, and not the reserve that was left behind. i.e. the one
Cooper jumped with.