SAC Portland to SAC Seattle re Continental Airlines source on hijacker's jump
Document date 1 March 1977
Also filed separately as sections:
Report a problem
Email this to [email protected]
Id: Cooper-Part-39:227-228
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-39:227-228 Document: Airtel SAC Portland to SAC Seattle re Continental Airlines source on hijacker's jump Id: Cooper-Part-39:227-228 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-39%3A227-228 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
A person reads every report. Corrections are made by hand, to the data — titles, dates, names, which pages belong together — never to the scans, and they can take a while to appear.
FBI 164-81, Vault Part 39 pp. 227–228 (DB Cooper-15412–15413), Airtel, dated 1 Mar 1977 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-39%3A227-228
FD-36 (Rev. 2-14-74)
FBI
Date: 3/1/77
Transmit the following in _______________ (Type in plaintext or code)
Via AIRTEL AIRMAIL - (Precedence)
-------------------------------------------
---
TO: SAC, SEATTLE (164-81)
FROM: SAC, PORTLAND (164-41) (P)
SUBJECT: NORJAK (OO: Seattle)
Re information from [REDACTED] Continental Airlines
---
On 2/22/77, [REDACTED] Continental Airlines, [illegible symbol] Seattle, Washington, was interviewed at Portland International Airport by SA [REDACTED] furnished the following information:
On the night of 11/24/71, during the hijacking in this matter, he, [REDACTED] a Continental Air- lines flight between Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. He became aware of the hijacking by radio and followed the progress of the hijacking by monitoring the discrete radio frequencies in his own aircraft.
[REDACTED] advised that he departed Seattle- Tacoma Airport enroute for Portland shortly after Northwest Flight 305, which was being hijacked, and that he followed the same course flown by Northwest Flight 305 but was approximately four minutes behind the Northwest flight when it arrived at Portland.
[REDACTED] advised that in his twenty-four years flying airliners, he recalls that night of 11/24/71, as being the most rapid and severe weather change in his experience. He said that when he was approaching Portland, along Victor 23 airways flying a course of approximately 166 degrees, he was experiencing a wind directly from 166 degrees at 80 knots of speed at his altitude which was 14,000 feet. He said that the wind
---
(2) - Seattle 2 - Portland
RPH:kd (4) Approved: [signature] Special Agent in Charge SA [initials] Sent _____ M Per _____
GPO: 1975 O - 590-992 DB Cooper-15412
PD 164-41
---
at 10,000 feet was approximately 65 knots and from a direction of from 160 to 170 degrees and that when he landed at Portland International Airport, he landed to the east on runway 10 and at that time experienced surface winds of 35 knots coming from 160 degrees. He remembered these figures because they were "... near the maximum cross-wind component allowable for his aircraft.
[redacted] advised that he has [guess: thought] considerably b6 about the hijacking in this matter and has concluded that it is b7c not realistic to assume that the hijacker survived the jump. He said that in view of the very dense terrain in the drop zone area, he can understand why the hijacker's remains have not been found. He suggested that one way this might be facilitated would be to place identical equipment to that known to have been in possession of the hijacker, that is, two parachutes, an attache case, and the known clothing on a large open field on a day of warm sunshine. Ater exposure to the rays of sun for a period of time, the entire field should be photographed with infra-red film. The image on the infra-red film should be distinctive. Then, photographs of the drop zone area could be made with infra-red film after a similar exposure to warm sunshine and the films, when processed, could be examined for an image similar to that made by the "dummy." [redacted] pointed out that in view of the almost complete absence of man-made objects or metal objects in the rugged regions of the drop zone area, there should not be any materials there which would yield similar images.
---
Information available to Portland indicates the wind believed to be in effect in the drop zone area at the time the hijacker parachuted was coming from the southwest. If that is the case and the Northwest engineers who computed the location of the drop zone and the prime line along which UNSUB presumably fell were using southwest wind information, then the calculations of the location of the drop zone may .. not be accurate. A shift of wind from the west to the south would push the east end of the prime line to the north in a counter-clockwise direction. It could cause previously unsearched territory to the west of the drop zone to be included in a new amended drop zone.
---
LEAD
SEATTLE
AT SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. Will consider causing a dicussion of this matter with the Northwest Airlines engineers who computed the drop zone in this matter to determine whether the information from [redacted] is of any significance. b6 b7c
ARMED AND DANGEROUS
---
- 2 - DB Cooper-15413