D.B. Cooper's Parachute Possibly Found

[JSngry]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h73kW1S...jm9gPwD8VL3UB80

Parachute May Belong to Famed Hijacker

By GENE JOHNSON

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."

The serial number 30755 and the date Feb. 21, 1946 are stamped on a parachute found in North Clark County, Wash. as seen in Seattle on Tuesday, March 25, 2008. The FBI is working to find out if it is linked to the infamous D.B. Cooper case from 1971. (AP Photo/Kevin P. Casey)

FBI Special Agent Robbie Burroughs stands with the parachute found in North Clark County, Wash on Tuesday, March 25, 2008. The FBI is working to find out if it is linked to the infamous DB Cooper case from 1971 in Seattle. (AP Photo/Kevin P. Casey)

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Doesn't matter now, I've already spent all of the money. Well, I've got $100-125 left to spend on a sam Rivers Mosaic if anyone's selling?

[BERIGAN]

Wouldn't you think a parachute 25 years old, would be considered too old to use for safety reasons??? Bet it turns out to be from some military plane crash soon after the war...

[andybleaden]

The UK Ministry of Defence refused to comment on whether they were thinking of buying up spares of the 1946 model saying that they still prefer to use the ones from the First World War (ie none)

[Noj]

Wouldn't you think a parachute 25 years old, would be considered too old to use for safety reasons???

Maybe D.B. Cooper didn't know that, the parachute didn't work, and he was still accelerating on impact.

I sure would have been scouring the surroundings for a suitcase full of cash before reporting that parachute!

[AndrewHill]

Always found the DB Cooper hijaking fascinating since I was a kid. Should be interesting to see what the outcome will be with this parachute.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Doesn't matter now, I've already spent all of the money. Well, I've got $100-125 left to spend on a sam Rivers Mosaic if anyone's selling?

As long as the money's not disintegrating, I've got a Sam Rivers Mosaic that I'd let go for $125.

[Claude]

Wouldn't you think a parachute 25 years old, would be considered too old to use for safety reasons???

Maybe D.B. Cooper didn't know that, the parachute didn't work, and he was still accelerating on impact.

I sure would have been scouring the surroundings for a suitcase full of cash before reporting that parachute!

According to the Wikipedia article, it wasn't his parachute that he used, but a parachute that he requested together with the ransom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

Why would they risk the operation by giving him a 25 year old parachute?

[7/4]

April 1, 2008

FBI: Parachute Isn't Hijacker Cooper's

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:24 p.m. ET

SEATTLE (AP) -- A parachute found buried in southwestern Washington was not used by plane hijacker D.B. Cooper when he bailed out over the Pacific Northwest in 1971, the FBI said Tuesday.

The agency came to its conclusion after speaking with parachute experts and digging where children found the parachute early last month, said Laura Laughlin, special agent in charge of the FBI's Seattle division.

Earlier, the man who packed the four chutes given to the mysterious hijacker said they could not have been used by Cooper. Earl Cossey examined the found parachute for the FBI on Friday.

He told The Columbian of Vancouver that the newly found chute ''absolutely, for sure'' could not have been one of the four that he provided.

''The D.B. Cooper parachute was made of nylon,'' he said. ''This 1945 parachute was made of silk.''

Cossey sold parachutes at a skydiving operation in the 1970s and provided the chutes that the FBI gave Cooper.

Agents found more fabric and parachute lines as they dug at the site, but no harness, which would have provided a serial number and possible source of the find, FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs said.

The FBI launched a publicity campaign last fall, hoping to generate new tips to solve the 36-year-old mystery. The torn, tangled parachute was found about a month ago by children along a dirt road near Amboy.

A man who gave his name as Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in November 1971, claiming he had a bomb.

After the plane landed at Seattle, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and four parachutes and asked to be flown to Mexico. He then bailed out of the jet as it flew somewhere near the Oregon line.

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

[connoisseur series500]

Doubt any of the cash has survived either.