D B Cooper's Parachute?

[Surf n Turf]

Originally Posted by Ambush Master

I was questioned about this, a long ..........time ..........ago.......!

Ambush Master,
Well, it appears that it was a well planned and superbly executed mission –
Who else would Fuller Brush Inc. immediately question

SnT

[Ret10Echo]

Guess we wait some more....D.B., hope you are sitting on a beach in Mexico reading this and chuckling....



FBI: Parachute Isn't Hijacker Cooper's
April 2, 2008 - 5:18am

SEATTLE (AP) - A tangled, torn parachute found buried last month last month is not the one used by plane hijacker D.B. Cooper when he bailed out of a plane over the Pacific Northwest, the FBI said Tuesday. Investigators reached that conclusion after speaking with parachute experts, including Earl Cossey, who packed the chutes provided to Cooper that rainy November night in 1971.

"From the best we could learn from the people we spoke to, it just didn't look like it was the right kind of parachute in any way," said FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs.

Further digging at the site in southwestern Washington turned up no indication that it could have been Cooper's, she added.

A man calling himself Dan Cooper _ later mistakenly identified as D.B. Cooper _ hijacked a Northwest Orient passenger jet from Portland, Ore., to Seattle on Nov. 24, 1971.

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and four parachutes and asked to be flown to Mexico. He jumped out the back of the plane somewhere near the Oregon line.

Some of the cash has been found, but his fate is unknown, and investigators doubt he survived.

Children playing near a recently graded road found the parachute, and they urged their father to call the FBI because they had seen recent news stories about Cooper's case. The parachute was the right color, and the location was in the middle of what could have been Cooper's landing zone.

That got the attention of FBI agent Larry Carr, who drove to the site to see the find for himself.

But Cossey told Carr that Cooper's parachute was made of nylon. The one the children found was made of silk and did not feature a harness container. Cossey sold parachutes at a skydiving operation in Issaquah in the 1970s.

Cossey has been through the drill before; this is the third time the FBI has asked him to examine parachutes to see whether they might have been Cooper's.

One chute found long ago _ he couldn't remember when _ was just a "pilot chute," used to pull the main chute out of the pack. The other time, in 1988, it was a parachute found by a Columbia River diver seeking clues to Cooper's fate.

"They keep bringing me garbage," Cossey said. "Every time they find squat, they bring it out and open their trunk and say, 'Is that it?' and I say, 'Nope, go away.' Then a few years later they come back."

Cossey, though sounding cantakerous, appeared to relish the spotlight Tuesday. He answered his cell phone with "D.B. Cooper" and said he got a kick out of telling some reporters that the parachute was, in fact, the hijacker's.

One reporter called him back angrily, saying he could be fired for writing a false story, but another said the newsroom enjoyed the April Fool's joke.

"I'm getting mixed reviews," Cossey said. "But I'm having fun with it; what the heck."

[Team Sergeant]

Here's the funny part, someone finds a chute takes to the FBI, FBI takes chute to the guy that packed Coopers chute and gave the orginal chutes to the FBI to give to Cooper.

Its take Mr. Cossey 2 seconds to tell the FBI that's not Coopers chute but it takes the FBI a month to "determine it's not Coopers chute".

And all the FBI agents are college grads?

HEY Mr. Cooper, please write to us here at ProfessionalSoldiers.com and let us know if you're still alive!

We also want to know if you were a former SF soldier.

Team Sergeant

[Razor]

But Cossey told Carr that Cooper's parachute was made of nylon. The one the children found was made of silk and did not feature a harness container.

I find this interesting in that the date on the chute was 1946, and I thought that by that time most military chutes were being made of nylon due to silk shortages during the war. Live and learn.

[Ret10Echo]

This is a story that has always intrigued me. Honestly, I hope they never figure out who did it.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Four decades after a skyjacker dubbed D.B. Cooper bailed out of a U.S. jetliner in mid-air and vanished with $200,000 in cash, federal agents are pursuing new clues pointing to a suspect they believe is long dead, an FBI spokesman said on Tuesday.

The latest lead in the case originated with a source in law enforcement, who directed agents to a person who was close to the suspect and obtained objects now being analyzed to see if they bear fingerprints matching those left by the hijacker on the plane, said Frederick Gutt, FBI special agent in Seattle.

Gutt declined to reveal the law enforcement source, the person the FBI was led to, or the deceased individual whose fingerprints were being examined.

Full story here

The FBI is investigating a lead in an unsolved 1970s skyjacking where the hijacker escaped by parachuting out of a plane at night with $200,000 in cash and disappeared.

The lead in the legendary "D.B. Cooper" case points to a man who died 10 years ago, the FBI said.

If the man -- who investigators declined to identify -- is found to be the hijacker, it would mean he lived for some 30 years after the robbery and then died of natural causes.

"It's not so much new information. It retained our attention about one year ago, and we've been working on it since then. It's one of the active leads for that investigation," FBI spokesman Frederick Gutt said.

Full story here

[Oldrotorhead]

Originally Posted by kgoerz

But they caught the Unabomber.....thats right his brother turned him in, my bad

Wait they caught Eric Rudolph, thats right a small town Cop caught him Dumpster Diving, Double my Bad

They assaulted the Branch Dividian Compound and captured all the Suspects, thats right they burnt it down and killed everyone, Triple my bad

You are much to critical of the FBI. They caught Whitey Bolger right away! OH wait, is wasn't right away and it wasn't the FBI that found him.

[Dusty]

It just leaked out that the "Cooper" suspect has been ID'd as a deceased teamster union boss named "Jimmy Hoffa".

[mark46th]

I was in the 5th Group in 1971 at Ft Bragg. I remember a couple of the guys saying that the sketch looked familiar... That being said, $200,000 was a lot of money back then. Nowadays, that covers a couple of first class vacations...

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by mark46th

I was in the 5th Group in 1971 at Ft Bragg. I remember a couple of the guys saying that the sketch look familiar... That being said, $200,000 was a lot of money back then. Nowadays, that covers a couple of first class vacations...

You were in 5th Gp, I was in 5th Grade.....

After looking at the sketch I think it was Ambush Master...

[kgoerz]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Never fear the FBI is on the case..... even if they catch Cooper it will take another 25 years to bring the case to trial.....

Or his brother hands him over

[kgoerz]

Why are they even spending Money, Time and Man power on this. Aren't there more important things to be addressed.

[JoeEOD]

Parachutist magazine did a great multipart series on the D. B. Cooper story last year. Check it out on the USPA web site and hit the Parachutist button. You'll find it in the most commonly viewed list.

This news story should have never risen to the level of news. I got my Rigger's license in the early 70's and at that time the FAA regs required a silk parachute to have the lines cut off -even if never used- seven years (as I recall) after the date of manufacture. So there should have been no silk parachutes in service when Cooper jumped. The fact that it was a silk parachute automaticaly excluded it from being Cooper's.

The area safety officer (ASO) for the USPA in Hawaii was a guy named Dave Thompson who the the FBI seemed to think was a good fit for Cooper. He did the stunt jumps for the movie The Gypsy Moths. (They shot the low pull several times until he finally said no more). Fortunately for Dave he had a great alibi for the date of the hijacking!

[JoeEOD]

Oops, left out an important fact. The last silk parachute made in America was in the mid-fifties and would have been out of service by the mid-sixties.

[18C4V]

Originally Posted by JoeEOD

Parachutist magazine did a great multipart series on the D. B. Cooper story last year. Check it out on the USPA web site and hit the Parachutist button. You'll find it in the most commonly viewed list.

That was a cool article reading about Cooper, the equipment, and how airplane travel was back then!!!

They also did a follow up article with some SF guy who did something similiar but got caught a few days later.

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by JoeEOD

Parachutist magazine did a great multipart series on the D. B. Cooper story last year. Check it out on the USPA web site and hit the Parachutist button. You'll find it in the most commonly viewed list.

This news story should have never risen to the level of news. I got my Rigger's license in the early 70's and at that time the FAA regs required a silk parachute to have the lines cut off -even if never used- seven years (as I recall) after the date of manufacture. So there should have been no silk parachutes in service when Cooper jumped. The fact that it was a silk parachute automaticaly excluded it from being Cooper's.

The area safety officer (ASO) for the USPA in Hawaii was a guy named Dave Thompson who the the FBI seemed to think was a good fit for Cooper. He did the stunt jumps for the movie The Gypsy Moths. (They shot the low pull several times until he finally said no more). Fortunately for Dave he had a great alibi for the date of the hijacking!

"The Gypsy Moths" talk about a crazy movie.....Soon after I graduated Military Free Fall school we watched this movie, amazing. My favorite was that guy that jumped with like seven reserves and deployed them all......

I still think DB Cooper was alive and well after his jump....
What say you Ambush Master?