Albert18

Let's review something I posted. The aircrew told ops that Cooper was in the bathroom and would be there for a while. This is while the airplane is parked on the ground waiting for the fuel truck. The only way the aircrew would know that Cooper would be in the bathroom for a while is if Cooper told them he was going to be in there for a while before he went into the bathroom. Cooper was hijacking the airplane using a bomb. The way you control people with a bomb is to have at least one of them next to you. Cooper was alone in the can. You can't see out of the can. He told them he would be in there for a while. Here is a question I would have for Himmelsbach. Did he have somebody hold the bomb for him while he was in the bathroom?

Cooper committed a crime that activated the Air Force, the National Guard, the FBI, the FAA, and all sorts of state and local law enforcement. To start the crime he handed over a note. This note in effect told the authorities where he would commit the crime and what crime he was going to commit. The crime then slowly occured over many hours. Law enforcement knew where Cooper was at all times during the crime. Cooper committed the crime with no disguise and wearing a business suit. He started the crime in Portland and ended the crime just north of Portland. He apparently picked a very clever name for his alias. Even though basically blind to everything going on, he sat calmly on the plane while it was parked in Seattle. So calm he even spent time in the bathroom. And the crew said he was going to be in there for a while so he must have even told them he would be in the bathroom for a while. I'm sorry, but I need to see a body.

I think it is quite basic, unless there is proof otherwise, you assume he lived. The last time Cooper was seen alive he was tying the bag of money to himself. That sounds about as easy to do as tying a pig to yourself. So the fact some of the money was found is a very weak argument that he died. What else is there to suggest he died? The fact he has never turned himself in? I have studied a lot of famous cases and they always have a lot of clutter and amazing peripheral happenings that aren't relevant. But if you study long enough you find a main channel of information. This case seems different and odd.

Regarding Sluggo's comment about the missing communication logs, here is something that bothers me about the flight. Operations tells the flight crew that it is important for them to land as soon as Cooper jumps. Ops tells them he could jump and blow the plane up. This is the logical threat. You can't assume the bomb is a fake and why would Cooper take the bomb with him. So why didn't the flight crew's actions match the threat? Why did they go tooling through the skies all the way to Reno? Medford was discussed or they could have put the airplane down in Portland.

The Dan Cooper serial was started in Tintin magazine. That was a European magazine. Later the comic books were released. Makes one wonder how much US circulation these comics received.

Apparently quite a french following. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/francejohn/dc_page1.htm Which makes you wonder how much exposure this crime received outside the US borders. Could the people who might have recognized Cooper lived somewhere where they didn't get much exposure to the crime? Add to this the olive skin color and the fact he spoke with no accent. Very interesting.

So the fictional Dan Cooper is a hero. Isn't that interesting. http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/dancooper.htm I wonder how much of a US following this comic series had?

Great work on the Dan Cooper name Sluggo. What a find. So Dan Cooper is a "test pilot in the Canadian Airforce". Over 40 Dan Cooper graphic novels have been published to date. Does "graphic novel" = comic book?

I didn't say you could. I can. You seriously can't see the differnce between Tina and Flo in the pictures? Did you not catch the news where they hire people at airports to read people. It is part of security.

I thought it was interesting when I first saw a picture of "Ckret", I thought whoa, that guy is brimming with confidence. A good thing to have when you are dealing with the environment he is in. The point is, I think you can get a basic reading on somebody from just one picture. When I saw the pictures of Tina and Flo, I see two very different people. Tina appears to be overwhelmed, and Flo, not even close. Flo looks like someone who could backhand you into next week. Isn't it interesting Cooper chooses Tina as the person he keeps close to him. I agree with the idea Cooper must have had some kind of jump experience but he wasn't part of a skydiving community. This is why I do not understand the criticism of his decision not to bring his own gear. To acquire gear is to create a trail for the FBI to discover. Also, there is virtually a 100% chance he would have to stow the gear upon landing. Stowed gear can be discovered, ask McCoy. If the FBI gets their hands on your gear, it's probably lights out, not so if you do what Cooper did. Look at the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. Bruno brought his own lumber(ladder) to the crime, not a good idea.

The real "Dan Cooper" cooperating? It would take Ckret a small portion of a lunch break to know he might have the real deal. Slightly longer if it was somebody who knew the real "Dan Cooper".

A question for Ckret. With Cooper being 40+ years old in 1971, if still alive, he is very much a senior citizen today. Add to this the fact the FBI thinks he died that night. Therefore is there any chance his indictment will be removed? This would be an excellent way to move this investigation forward. With all threat of prosecution removed, if nobody comes forward with new information, then I think it is safe to say your theory is pretty sound. And if someone really needs to pay, well, get a little extra rough with the next bank robber. Make them crawl.

Well, at least we have part of this case solved. You have just described an engineer.

Let me see where we are. We aren’t comfortable with the idea somebody buried the money on the beach and we aren’t comfortable with the idea it arrived there by natural means. This is not good. Unless Ckret finds some teeth where he is digging, I think the only way to find Cooper is to use the other door. Sort him out from the pool of people he must have come from. Like Ckret said, that is probably impossible now. I agree with 377 that Cooper must have had a job that provided him with information. It would be interesting to know the course the FBI took in conducting this investigation. Did the investigators concentrate solely on the skydiving community? Did they drag a net through the aviation community in the Seattle area? What about fired air traffic controllers? I know SafeCracking doesn’t like messing with the flight path and maybe he has something there. In the communication log, the flight crew is told to determine when Cooper jumps and then notify the ground immediately and blink their lights. This tells me the people on the ground were on top of the situation. They knew that their best chance of finding Cooper was to know when he jumped. But it would do them no good to know when he jumped, if they didn’t know where the plane was at the time. So wouldn’t they have been keeping a very detailed plot of the course of the airplane as it flew? Any disgruntled ex-air traffic controllers out there know the answer to this?

Thanks for the info on the river level. That was what I was wondering. As for the question, why Thanksgiving Eve? When was Pearl Harbor attacked? It is never wise to rile people up during business hours. Who wants to conduct a search in cold wet weather on Thanksgiving day. I think this also explains why he wasn't fussy about the demoninations. He knew he was doing this at closing time before a major holiday and time was more important than being nitpicky about the denominations. I know a lot of people think Cooper didn't know what he was doing but only one question is needed in response. And Cooper's real name is what again?

Here is the question I would want to verify regarding the money, especially since I don't live in the area and I don't know how the Columbia is operated. The Columbia is a dammed river, to put it mildly. The money appears to have been found in an area that is quite high and dry. The dredging operation created a layer in 1974 and the money is 18+ inches above that layer, just a few years later. That is a lot of bank movement for a dammed river. Is the Columbia allowed to be that wild? Especially since it runs through an urban area just a stones throw upriver. Somebody who lives in the area and knows the river should be able to answer that question quite easily.

Don't forget there were chase planes flying that night so it would be interesting to know their flight paths and the elevation they were flying. The fighters got recalled but I don't know how far south they had gotten before that happened.

I was reading through the transcript of the communications. At 5:47 “The flight is on the ground and they are making preparations to hook up the fueling truck and the hijacker is in the lavatory and think will stay there for a while.” So Cooper is in the can? He had all that time to go to the bathroom while they were circling. I don’t understand this. I didn’t realize there was a third stewardess. Flight Operations told them to check to see if he had left the airplane and then land immediately. Failure to follow these instructions really put the FBI behind the 8 ball.

Is it true Cooper unpacked the chest chute and tried to fit the money in there? If so, then he apparently wasn’t planning on jumping with two usable chutes. Were the two chest chutes the same size? Did As Stratostar says, I think time was an issue so I think we have to be careful not to misinterpret his decisions. I also think Stratostar has a very valid point about what knowledge he displayed. I don’t think the talent pool he came from is that large. The more he shows the more he narrows that talent pool.

Weather provides cover. The weather conditions might have been responsible for him getting away. The weather conditions delayed the ground search. If he had jumped at high noon in June, we would probably know his name.

I agree with what you are saying Novalis. I don't live all that far from where they hold the Sturgis motorcycle rally. During rally week I see people riding down the road wearing helmets and clothes and leather so that not one speck of skin shows. I also see riders tooling down the interstate at 80mph with no shirt and no helmet. Last year I even saw a guy with no helmet, no shirt, and not even any glasses, going 75mph. Would it be accurate to say those people riding around with helmets and completely covered are the experienced, expert riders and these guys with no helmets and skin everywhere are the naive, inexperienced riders? I don't think so. All it tells you is that people are different and assess risk differently.

That is exactly what I was thinking. Why not bring some dogs in and let them tear at it for a while. Then we will determine if it is real.

It would be great if this turns out to be Cooper's chute. If it is for real then the FBI's estimate of his jump was right on. I hope they realize they better post a 24 hour guard at the site until they have a chance to do their investigation.

There is one thing that has bothered me about the sketches of Cooper. Ckret posted the descriptions of Cooper and they made a point about his olive colored skin. He had a dark complexion. The problem is the facial features in the sketch don't support that. For example tennis player Rafael Nadal has a dark complexion and his "look" matches his skin color. Actors Cary Grant and George Hamilton have a dark complexion but you can tell it is a "created" look. My guess is Cooper was not really a "latin" but rather was just a guy with an outdoor complexion. If that is the case though, the witnesses should have been able to determine that.

Any fish in those lakes?