40 years later, new evidence unveiled in DB Cooper case

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45421647/ns/local_news-seattle_wa/t/years-later-new-evidence-unveiled-db-cooper-case/#.Ts47mXJtmls ^ | 11/24/2011 | Chris Ingalls

[Morgana]

This Thanksgiving marks the 40th anniversary of a legendary Northwest crime.

In 1971 skyjacker DB Cooper parachuted into the night sky over Washington and vanished.

Now, FBI agents have something they don’t often get in a 40-year-old criminal case: new physical evidence.

It comes from the clip-on tie left behind on the hijacked plane from the man known as DB Cooper.

For three years a team of private scientists has been studying evidence from the Cooper case, at the invitation of the Seattle office of the FBI.

“One of the most notable particles that we’ve found, that had us the most excited, was titanium metal,” said lead scientist Tom Kaye.

He said the team identified the titanium on Cooper’s tie using an electron microscope.

[bgill]

I don’t like it they’re using DNA companies to find criminals through their relatives but Cooper is likely dead by now so why not.

[PA Engineer]

He jumped from the side door of a 727. Dangerous jump with likely injury.

No. He jumped from the rear door: Boeing 727

Tests were conducted over Thailand in 1968 and the aircraft seemed uniquely capable of quickly air dropping pallets of cargo as well and jumpers while retaining overall airliner appearance and performance. The extent of which this capability was used once it was proven is not clear, but I have been told that it was in fact used repeatedly in Laos and other "border regions" where America was not technically supposed to be.

Primarily as a result of DB Cooper, the rear door was phased out.

[SunkenCiv]