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Quote“She could fist-fight like a man,” he [Burnworth] said and described a brutal attack by Bernice upon her younger brother when she was a kid.
“She couldn’t be rational,” Don says, and states that Bernice vacillated about marriage to Don.
Ultimately she did consent to marry, but after 28 days she field for divorce. During this time she also conducted at least one serious suicide attempt, intentionally driving a VW into a tree at a high rate of speed.
DAMN! I always thought skydivers had the craziest ex wifes. Pilots have us in the bag.
Don has had five wives. That's a lot of malfunctions.
No jokes about packing errors will be tolerated.
I don't fault Bruce for including all the details of the interview. It wasnt done for lurid purposes, but to give a full picture of who this guy is. The sex abuse stuff sounds suspicious. How could a person witness and photograph such abuse and not intervene to stop it and/or call the police? If you had proof then the perpertators would do a LOT of time in prison. Having proof and ignoring it just doesnt sound likely to me.
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georger 235
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whatever to the DB Cooper story! Bruce gets off on this kind of thing... all the time and attention to
lurid gossip-details on Bruce's part could better have been spent getting dates and facts, or trying to.
Bruce is no historian. He's a gossip columnist with
a strong bias toward psycho-sexual drama. Eg.
his Barb Dayton stories and now this story etc..
If Bruce ever interviewed Christopher Columbus
it would be mostly re-Isabella & Ferdinand & children & cousins ... with ocean voyages completely omitted
but lots of 'details'. . . !
nigel99 325
Quote
Also, if a jumper on a night military mission disappears, the rest of the load doesn't just shrugg it off. It is a huge deal. A search is mobilized.
Exactly: it would have been a huge matter with all
kinds of people alerted/brought into the matter.
Moreover, when X says: ' On one particular jump a stranger joined them.' ... that is impossible. Let's forget about authorisation, command, etc. This sounds like a Jo Weber concoction.
This story presses a lot of buttons. Its a string of
archetypes connected. The one thing missing is a
McCoy Utah Ntl Guard connection - I guess X left
that out for the time being?
I smell a shiksa at work - hocken me ha'chinik -
and I don't mean efsheh!
Snowman will be all over this - send us a report.
No different part of the world but I have personally "stowed away" on a military flight. As a 15 year old kid interested in skydiving I was on base where a friends dad was in the air force. I showed some interest to the military skydivers and ended up getting taken up for a ride while they jumped (obviously as a pax not jumper!), afterwards there was a bit of a shit-storm because there was no way that I should have been on that flight.
Same country and a few years later a local skydiver got hold of some fatigues and spent the afternoon jumping with the military fun jumpers without being questioned, although I believe there were fairly serious repercussions when he bragged about it.
Although I doubt that the military would shrug off a missing jumper - doesn't ring true for any operation
georger 235
immediately thereafter UAL fired Don, saying that he was a causing “adverse publicity.” He was denied all passes aboard UAL flights, and had to pay for his own passage to Oklahoma, where he returned to live with his mother.
It sounds like DB was dismissed due to “adverse publicity.” related to his domestic machinations.
He was reinstated after a Labor Relations hearing.
It seems to me had his problem been an accusation
re- being accused or under investigation for being DB Cooper, there is no way in hell UAL, the Labor
Relations Board, his Union, or the FAA would have ever "resinstated" muich less permitted Burnworth ...
to fly again.
I am willing to bet the transcript of his hearing says nothing about an accusation of him being DB
Cooper ... as per Mr. X's allegation/story.
Anything of that criminal nature would definately
have been exclusionary ... and front page news!
Burnworth's military records can be checked -
he either had the record X claims he did, or he didnt. Burnworth says he never parachuted at all -
doesnt even know how and never did?
Burnworth seems to be saying he was in Germany
on 11-24-71 ?
I guess we wait for our gossip columnist to feed us more psycho-sexual details...
Was Burnworth, Barb Dayton?
377 21
QuoteIt seems to me had his problem been an accusation
re- being accused or under investigation for being DB Cooper, there is no way in hell UAL, the Labor
Relations Board, his Union, or the FAA would have ever "resinstated" muich less permitted Burnworth ...
to fly again.
I am willing to bet the transcript of his hearing says nothing about an accusation of him being DB
Cooper ... as per Mr. X's allegation/story.
Anything of that criminal nature would definately
have been exclusionary ... and front page news!
Being investigated and cleared shouldnt disqualify anyone from flying for UAL or any other airline.
Sometimes the FBI makes quick arrests in high profile cases with ZERO publicity. They dont want to be embarrassed if they nabbed the wrong guy but they want to keep a suspect from fleeing while they do further investigation.
Arrest records are not easily accessible. Once charged, matters become public except in rare cases such as certain spy/espionage/state secrets matters.
Burnworth could obtain his own FBI reports through FOIA. Ask him to file a request Bruce.
X claims that the FBI fingered Burnworth as a Cooper suspect, but all we have is anonymous hearsay, no solid evidence.
Burnworth could have been fired for using UAL as part of an illegal transport of children out of the US without the permission of their legal custodian. His firing and arrest may have had nothing to do with Cooper. The quick repatriation of his kids from Germany back to to the US and to their mother's state suggests that some legal maneuvering about child custody was going on around the time of his arrest.
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When he left the country he had a 30-day temp custody grant from a California judge. I'm not sure if that meant anything in Kansas, where the kids were.
Yes, leaving the country with the kids was illegal, as I understand it.
Yes, I wonder how Marion Cooper could have gotten all that information of the molestations in KC, and why nothing was done about it.
Don's story is not unique in terms of custody battles and incomprehensible court rulings. One of my editors has experienced something very similar to Don.
Farflung 0
377 21
DC 4s, DC 6s, DC 7s, C 119s, C 97s, and many other classic heavy propliners made their last stands flying fish in AK.
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Farflung 0
quade 4
QuoteDon says he was arrested and incarcerated by the FBI as a suspect in the DB Cooper case.
Yeah, but why even bother with nutcases? Does that get you anywhere? Just the fact he thinks the DB Cooper event date was chosen based on his ex-wife's birthday or some such non-sense ought to eliminate him from having anything serious to say.
The World's Most Boring Skydiver
377 21
But I do agree Quade that there are holes in the Burnworth story big enough to fly a C 133 through.
Check out the C 133. I sure wish Don K had lured this baby to Quincy or Rantoul before she retired in 2007. HUGE... and she only cost $20,000 surplus. They were structurally compromised, but hey, we wear parachutes.
http://sites.google.com/site/boeing377/c133
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Orange1 0
QuoteThe sex abuse stuff sounds suspicious. How could a person witness and photograph such abuse and not intervene to stop it and/or call the police? If you had proof then the perpertators would do a LOT of time in prison. Having proof and ignoring it just doesnt sound likely to me.
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I agree - for anyone, but especially for your own kids! I realise custody etc was more difficult to gain for fathers in those days, but i can't believe the authorities would have turned a blind eye to that.
And even with 5 wives, one would think someone could be a bit more specific about marriage and divorce dates, rather than when he thinks he was married and divorced? I mean, if he can't be sure about that, I'm not sure how much to take at face value re memory of other dates.
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QuoteDC-7-C landing and launching from Dutch Harbor Airport???
Why not? Runway is 3900 ft long, 100 ft wide. DC 7C has 127 ft wingspan but I dont think there are obstacles alongside the runway which would preclude a DC 7 from flying in or out. Am I missing something? I am not a licensed pilot.
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quade 4
QuoteQuoteDC-7-C landing and launching from Dutch Harbor Airport???
Why not? Runway is 3900 ft long, 100 ft wide. DC 7C has 127 ft wingspan but I dont think there are obstacles alongside the runway which would preclude a DC 7 from flying in or out. Am I missing something? I am not a licensed pilot.
It's a bit short for normal (legal) operation for the DC-7. Normal length would be something about 6,400 ft. long at a sea level airport.
The requirement isn't just the take off roll, but the accelerate/stop distance. That is to say, enough pavement to make take off speed and then instantly shut down and stop.
Airlines have that requirement, non-commercial operations do not (usually (always gotta leave an exception)).
Beyond that, just the landing requirement (over a 50 ft obstacle) was something slightly over a mile.
The World's Most Boring Skydiver
Farflung 0
VASI skewed 5 degrees. Just before flare you can turn and take a big bite out of the seat cushion... yeeeee hawwww.
How is your snow and ice landing abilities? What runway conditions are used for the flight manuals? Much snow or ice in Alaska? Wind at Dutch Harbor?
Now.... what is the problem with landing a fish laden DC-7-C again?
The B-36 has a 220 foot wing span and ten (10 manly) engines... that thing would be able to operate out of Dutch Harbor no problem... after all the B-36 flew out of Alaska many times.... right? Apples and nudibranks.
quade 4
QuoteDutch Harbor elevation 22 feet (22 f e e t) with a pattern altitude of 2,100 feet.... think there are obstacles? Or is this profile just for fun?
VASI skewed 5 degrees. Just before flare you can turn and take a big bite out of the seat cushion... yeeeee hawwww.
He said he wasn't a pilot. He probably doesn't know a normal pattern altitude is 800 to 1000 feet above the runway, nor does he probably know that a normal glide slope into a landing is 3°. Yes, an extra 2° is a hell of a lot if a person wasn't used to it. Normal flap and power settings a pilot was used to in the aircraft simply wouldn't work as it would mean the aircraft would come in fast. The bigger the aircraft, the bigger the issue too. A Piper Cub or C-172 probably wouldn't care all that much, but with something that requires more than a mile to land you'd be in for a surprise if not prepared.
The World's Most Boring Skydiver
georger 235
QuoteDon says he was arrested and incarcerated by the FBI as a suspect in the DB Cooper case.
I dont suppose he gives a firm date? Was it even
in 1972? X said the agents said they had a lot of time and $$$ invested on Don - related to Cooper,
the kid matter, or what?
But if X and Don worked together say after 1972
whywould agentsgo to X at all, on what info?
Again we need a chain of real dates to hang things
on ...
I dont quite accept Quade's nutcase theory - it might
have been a nutcase agents were looking for and
at!
Has any hijacker been something other than a nutcase with a complicated life?
This is based on alot of inference X received from the three federal authorities who individually interviewed him in three sequential, separate sessions. Exactly what was said by the agents, I do not know because X is very cagey about what the feddies specifically said.
X says he wants to hold onto some details as a kind of trump card.
By the way, Don was very eager to receive the URL to this site. I hope he joins the discussion. X also reads this forum, and is a big fan of Sluggo's!
Puzzling. We know that's not true and he should too.
You might ask him the basis for his conclusion.
I would sure like to see the arrest report. It might have had nothing to do with the Cooper case. I searched and it appears that he was never charged with a federal crime.
He is certainly da man as far as pilot qualifications go:
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION RECORD
Agency Information Current Through: 02-11-2010
Database Last Updated: 03-17-2010
Update Frequency: MONTHLY
Current Date: 05/07/2010
Source: FEDERAL AVIATION ADMIN.
Currency Status: ARCHIVE RECORD
NAME & PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION
Name: DONALD OTIS BURNWORTH
Address: (deleted for privacy)
Country: USA
Region: WESTERN/PACIFIC
LICENSING INFORMATION
Licensing Agency: FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION
License/Certification Type: AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT
License/Certification Type: FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR
License/Certification Type: FLIGHT ENGINEER
Expire Date:Expire Date: 04/30/2007
Specialty: AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT; AIRPLN SINGLE ENGINE LAND, CMRCL PILOT; AIRPLN SINGLE ENGINE SEA, GLIDER
Specialty: FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR; AIRPLANE SINGLE AND MULTIENGINE, INSTRUMENT AIRPLANE, GLIDER
Specialty: FLIGHT ENGINEER; TURBOJET POWERED, RECIPROCATING ENGINE POWERED
License State: US
FURTHER INFORMATION
Medical Class: 3
Medical Class Date Expires: 06/20/2009
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