New lead on D.B. Cooper.

Hi
Strangely it was just on the news here..
There is supposedly a seattle/vancouver connection,the story named a guy and apparently he used to make regular trips to a bank in china town, and some of the money supposedly turned up in washington state.
He died in the late 2003 I think they said.

http://m.ctv.ca/topstories/20111124/sleuth-thinks-hijacker-db-cooper-stashed-cash-in-vancouver-bank-111124.html

cheers
Jerry

I believe the area got a fair bit of ash deposit from Mount St Helen’s a few years later too… so any remains could be further buried.

Oddly, there isn’t much ash left outside the immediate area.

And that area may be S or SW of Mt. St. Helens which would have greatly limited the ash amount.

….. Someone bought the air stairs from that 727…….

Robert

Hi
Interesting did he pay in cash ??:diablo:
Cheers
Jerry

I think the most likely outcome is just what you say – he’s still wrapped up in the remains of the chute, at the bottom of a ravine or something. I believe the area got a fair bit of ash deposit from Mount St Helen’s a few years later too… so any remains could be further buried.

At first glance the money washed up on the river bank obviously supports that too: maybe he landed in the river and drowned, maybe he just lost the money in midair. As always with this story though, there’s a twist; the 5k or so that was recovered was still secured in bundles of 100 notes, just as it had been given to Cooper: apart from one bundle which had had about $200 missing. So maybe… just maybe….

More details on the “new suspect” ….

http://abcnews.go.com/US/db-cooper-exclusive-niece-provide-key-evidence/story?id=14219052

BTW from memory N467US was scrapped in Memphis in 1996

Wonder if he is a forum member!

And after its second post-Northwest transfer, the airstair STILL opens!

I’ve used the airstair on an airliner once… on a Republic Airlines DC-9 at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Ca.

Flying Republic was “interesting”… it is still the only time I have been in an aircraft where a passenger sitting in the back could actually see vertical bending of the fuselage in-flight… in only light-moderate turbulence! I was definitely glad to use that airstair to de-plane.

That DC-9 was seriously near its airframe life limit!

Dan cooper aircraft page 2

Page 2 Dan Cooper aircraft

What happened to Dan Cooper Aircraft page 1

I have many hours on this aircraft. As far as I know the company went out of business in 1993 and the aircraft was sent to the scrap yard.

Chris

If I remember correctly, there’s been one movie, several TV programmes with a ‘DB’ theme and a number of books.

Dan Cooper is certainly a folk hero over in the Pacific Northwest – I seem to remember something in the files that said that the CAA insisted on Dan-Air’s 72’s be modified so the rear door could not be opened in flight – maybe the 1-11s were done as well!

I was working at Boeing at the time of this episode. I remember installing these on the 727-100 and 200 at Boeing Field. The part about sealing the airstairs is a little bogus since they were required as a tail stand.

This is from Wikopedia

A Cooper vane (also sometimes called a “Dan Cooper switch” or “D.B. Cooper device”) is a mechanical aerodynamic wedge that prevents the ventral airstair of an aircraft from being lowered in flight.[1] Following three hijackings in 1972, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered that Boeing 727 aircraft be fitted with Cooper vanes.[2] The device was named for famed airplane hijacker D. B. Cooper, who used the rear stairway to exit a Boeing 727 in flight and make his escape via parachute.

The Cooper vane is a very simple device consisting of a spring-loaded paddle connected to a plate. When the aircraft is on the ramp, the spring keeps the paddle perpendicular to the fuselage, and the attached plate does not block the stairway. As the aircraft takes off, the airflow pushes the paddle parallel to the fuselage and the plate is moved underneath the stairway, preventing it from being lowered. Once the airflow decreases on landing, the spring-loaded paddle returns to its initial position, thereby allowing the stairs to be lowered again. Although this device was intended to prevent hijackings aboard the 727 and other aircraft with a ventral airstair, many airlines sealed the airstair entirely, never to use it again.

Would be remarkable if after all this time they were able to close the case.

If I remember correctly, there’s been one movie, several TV programmes with a ‘DB’ theme and a number of books.

Dan Cooper is certainly a folk hero over in the Pacific Northwest – I seem to remember something in the files that said that the CAA insisted on Dan-Air’s 72’s be modified so the rear door could not be opened in flight – maybe the 1-11s were done as well!

Maybe it was. 😉

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082958/

How is this not a film?

Why have I never heard about this?

Amazing story.

Here’s the Telegraph Story that it was based on: quite a nice piece on the whole Cooper legend generally….

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8667855/The-40-year-mystery-of-Americas-greatest-skyjacking.html