Posted on 10/07/2017 9:59:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The man in the natty suit smoked a cigarette, ordered a bourbon and soda and carried a bomb in his briefcase.
He sat in the rear of the passenger cabin on Northwest Orient Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle. Shortly after takeoff, he slipped the flight attendant a note explaining his intention to hijack the plane. Calmly, he put on a pair of sunglasses, demanded $200,000 in ransom and directed the pilot to land in Seattle. Once on the ground, the hijacker let 36 passengers exit, accepted the $200,000 and instructed the pilot to fly to Mexico.
On Nov. 24, 1971, a man who had bought a ticket using the name Dan Cooper – and later was misidentified by the Associated Press as D.B. Cooper – parachuted mid-flight from the rear exit of Flight 305 and straight into American folklore. It is the only unsolved case of piracy in the history of U.S. aviation. Today, 46 years after that Thanksgiving-eve skydive, three facts about the identity of D.B. Cooper are true:
1. A team of 40 volunteer sleuths (many of them retired law enforcement investigators) has named Robert Rackstraw of San Diego as the person they believe to be the fugitive.
2. The actual FBI has closed the case July 11, 2016 without reaching any conclusion.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
I dunno about "Jack". Check out Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution
Makes more sense that just one madman.
The air personnel got a pretty good look at him, described him....and a sketch of him was published.
Yet AFAIK nobody came forward and said..... I went to school with him........ I worked w/ him.......I lived next door to him.....he attended my church.
What has always puzzled me is the amount of money he asked for. $200,000 was a lot of money in 1971 but the amount seems oddly specific.
It was almost like he figured he was owed money plus interest and rounded it at $200,000.
The insider angle is interesting too.
Maybe Cooper had to double the amount he demanded in order to pay off his insider?
Maybe some law enforcement officer found a dead/injured Cooper in the woods and kept the loot?
Maybe Cooper went to Florida instead of Mexico to throw the FBI off his trail?
Maybe he made it to some accomplice and drove to Mexico and spent the rest of his life sitting beachside sipping his favorite adult beverage?
So many possible outcomes to the story.
This was before the computer age and instant communications so anything is possible and feasible.
He has achieved folk hero status in some circles.
Personally, I think he's dead, but...he is now LEGION!
DB Cooper is everywhere.
.
Nope!
Not Robert Rackstraw!
But “Cooper” is from California.
.
They found some money in woods a few years later. FBI said it matched some of the Serial numbers. Now we know the FBI is usually full of Sh*t I would like to see the reports. Why would the FBI close an investigation which was going nowhere? They could have left it open.
>> I am surprised that someone who did or does night jumps in the military has not commented on this story.
Have done it. Even during the daytime spotting (choosing your exit point) can be difficult.
The way it is (or was) typically done (non combat, non-hijacking situation) is roughly like this: you throw something out of the plane at opening altitude when you are directly over the spot where you want to land. (Can’t remember what it is. Sorry, it’s been awhile. Cloth/flag?) Then you watch where it lands and calculate based on that. For example if it lands 1 mile north of the drop zone, the exit point of the aircraft is 1 mile south of the drop zone (because you will drift north 1 mile under canopy).
Lots of other assorted factors involved. If you have a long freefall, the winds aloft can affect your landing point. Winds aloft can be in different directions than surface winds. A good square parachute can make up for a lot of errors due to its forward velocity, so there is some leeway, but there are obviously limits. You get some momentum in the direction of the aircraft travel when you exit (i.e., if the aircraft is moving at west at X mph when you jump, then you continue moving west at X mph until you are slowed by wind resistance. Or until you open the canopy.)
I don’t remember ever reading about how fast the plane was going when Cooper jumped. Or whether he obtained wind info, or was able to dictate to the pilot the flight path for an exact exit point. Or whether he did any calculations. Or whether he did any spotting. I am not picturing him hanging out the open door waiting for the right moment to jump, but maybe he did. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the stories.)
During optimal daylight conditions, I’ve seen jumpers land MILES from the drop zone. Not super often, but it’s happened to me (when someone else was spotting).
I can’t remember what we did for night jumps, but I do remember getting wind info from the tower, particularly because of one memorable jump where we were pretty far off and the spotter blamed it on bad info from the tower. (Pretty sure it was a bad spot and that was a face-saving excuse.)
The point is, making a pinpoint landing at night, without excellent wind info, would be extremely difficult. Anyone who was able to pull this off would have to be a very experienced jumper. Even then it would be very challenging.
It seems unlikely to me that a very experienced jumper who suddenly vanished would not be noticed by his fellow jumpers. (Whatever happened to X who used to jump with us all the time and ever since that hijacking we haven’t seen him?)
So, IMO, if Cooper was experienced enough to pull this off (with a pinpoint landing) then he would probably have been noticed as missing. If he was not an experienced jumper, then he would be unlikely to be able to land precisely where he wanted to.
” it seemed to me more likely that they missed their landfall and got washed thru the Golden Gate and out to sea by the strong outward tide.”
And were picked up by a sealing ship commanded by Wolf Larsen. One of my favorite stories.
He showed a briefcase bomb to the stewardess, and hijacked a plane. Hell yeah, we want to know who he is and incarcerate him.
Well, anyone who actually believes in justice does.
IIRC law enforcement doesn’t close a case without a trial or a dead suspect.
I sometimes watch Forensic Files on late night tv and they are showing cases that are sometimes 20-30 years old. Why would a high profile case like Cooper be closed without a clear resolution?
Of course the FBI is so pristine that it smells like the Chesapeake Bay at low tide.
They are not the noble G-Men they claim to be. J Edgar Hoover ran it like it was his personal fiefdom and every director since has done the same.
you do realize that he is most likely dead, right.
the jump from the plane alone might have killed him.
they have found some of the money scattered all over the area
where he jumped in the past.
he’d be anything from late 60’s to early 80’s by now, if he is
still alive.
Thank you
I realize all of that, and it’s all immaterial. He is a hijacker. He should be prosecuted if still alive.
Back in the 80’s, I used to write: “I am alive...D B Cooper” in truckstop bathroom stalls in Tx,La,Ok and Ark...just to keep the fbi interested if anyone reported.
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