Andrade1812

Robert, can you post a sample of KCs handwriting, or give a detailed description?

From the FBI documents, we know an investigation occurred there very soon after the hijacking, I'd like to get an idea as to the depth and breadth of the investigation. Apparently someone who looked like Cooper was there in Aug of '71 I am not trying to link a named suspect to the Elsinore paracenter

Robert, do you have any samples of KC's handwriting?

I don't how many skydivers are still on this thread, but I'm looking for help: I would like to talk to any old-timers who were skydivers in the late 60s and early 70s who were jumping in Los Angeles. Specifically, anyone who was at the Elsinore Paracenter in the summer of 1971. Any referrals would be most welcome, PM me or contact me at marty.andrade at gmail

Lynn's review is on the Canadian Amazon site. Not sure why it isn't posted on the main site, but here is the Link Here is a selection from her review:

I agree. The "Cooper had knowledge of the 727" lead failed to produce a viable suspect in the last forty years, SP aside, and it appears Cooper got a few things wrong about how the stairs actually operated. In my mind the reasoning was simple (hindsight bias admitted here): How do you keep the money? Escape with a parachute... How do you jump from an aircraft? Through a door. How do you prevent the aircraft from becoming pressurized? Keep the door open What's the best door to get out of? Those rear stairs found on a few aircraft, including the popular 727. What did Cooper do? Tried to keep the door open. When forced to close the door for takeoff, what did he do? Work to get the door open ASAP, with the help of a flight attendant. When the stairs didn't go down, what did Cooper do? Tell the pilot to go slower until he could get out. There's just a lot of linear thinking here, nothing more than simple problem solving and maybe some a priori research.

Driving to the airfield is probably a thousand times more dangerous than anything you do at the drop zone. And based on our interactions Mark, you've got to be one of the most safety-conscious skydivers on the planet right now. I hope you enjoy a thousand more perfect drops.

I looked at 106 incidents on the skydiving fatalities database that were labelled as "No Pulls", of these 17 were mals with the jumper failing to open the reserve in time (including one jumper who pulled his reserve instead of his main and had a mal). A number were inexplicable. Factors I noted in the other deaths were: #1 demonstration jumps, filmmaking or formation jumps (factor present in 31 incidents), #2 Age, Health or pre-existing injuries (12 incidents) #3 Borrowed Equipment (8 incidents) #4 Suicides (6 incidents, maybe more) Of the rest, you have four students dying on their first solo jumps, three deaths in Antarctica (which factors do you count there?), three instructors trying to save students, two to five glove related (maybe not that significant?), two substance abusers, and one night jump. Forty-eight of these jumps are inexplicable: Good weather, experienced and healthy skydivers with no history of depression, working equipment, etc.

377-- From my own research I found that wearing gloves was actually a contributing factor in a significant number of no-pull skydiving fatalities.

I'm not sure where the dredge picked up the money, but there was 90,000 cubic yards of material dredged in 74 onto Tena Bar, so the dredge covered a lot of ground. The money would have been upstream of Tena Bar on the river bottom, north of the confluence of the Columbia and Williamette rivers. As for how it came to rest in the sediment of the Columbia river, I have theories based on speculation, and I don't like speculation.

Hello Everyone, My name is Marty Andrade and I wrote the book "Finding DB Cooper; Chasing the Last Lead" and I'm doing an AMA on my webpage. I believe Cooper survived the jump, that Max Gunther's book "DB Cooper: What Really Happened" gives us a partial account of the real story of DB Cooper, and that the Tina Bar money came up with the dredge. I know I'm new here but I've been on other forums for years. Thanks for reading.