FD-350 clipping, Seattle Times (UPI): eighth anniversary article (copy)

FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p.C11 Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.

Date: 11/22/79 Edition: Final

Title: Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle

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After 8 years, D.B. Cooper hijacking remains a mystery

by CLYDE JABIN United Press International

PORTLAND — Thanksgiving time has special meaning for Ralph Himmelsbach, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, especially this year.

It marks the eighth anniversary of his search for D.B. Cooper, who parachuted from a skyjacked jetliner to oblivion with $200,000 in $20 bills on Thanksgiving eve, 1971.

Himmelsback has put in thousands of hours, more than any other law-enforcement official, trying to catch Cooper, and it will be his last Thanksgiving on the case. He takes mandatory retirement next September 30 after 28½ years with the F.B.I.

Cooper boarded a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 jetliner in Portland, took control of the aircraft by threatening to explode a "bomb" in his briefcase, [and] forced it to land in Seattle where he got the ransom money, then parachuted into the Southwest Washington wilderness. No trace of him or the money ever was found.

Himmelsbach says he will not retire frustrated if he does not solve the case. "It hasn't been frustrating, it has been fascinating," he said. "It has been interesting every step of the way."

The F.B.I. approach also is directed against getting too emotionally tied up in a case, he said, since an agent then would not be as effective. "I do not have an ax to grind," he said of Cooper.

Himmelsbach, who spent Thanksgiving eve, 1971, listening to the radio communications, recalls how the pilot mentioned during the flight from Seattle that he thought Cooper had jumped because of a "low pressure bump." The agent said this bump, which also registered on the flight recorder at 8:11 p.m., occurred when the door in the tail of the plane swung back partially shut after Cooper jumped.

Two F-106 fighter pilots from McCord Air Force base were following the airliner after it left Seattle en route to the Cooper-[ordered] destination of Reno, Nev., but the fighter pilots did not see Cooper jump.

On Thanksgiving Day, Himmelsbach spent two hours flying with a Civil Air Patrol pilot in a small aircraft, criss-crossing the densely forested area where it was computed that Cooper went down, in the Lake Merwin region.

"We didn't see a thing," the agent said.

The next day, an Army unit from Fort Lewis was brought in to search the northeast Clark County area. The soldiers found nothing.

The only item that has ever turned up from the flight was the 727's rear door plastic plaque, apparently torn off by wind, found last January 12 miles north of where Cooper was believed to have jumped.

"Cooper had to have a stewardess put the door down during the flight," said Himmelsbach, adding that she then returned to the pilot's cabin. "That was the last time anyone saw him before he jumped."

Himmelsbach said the F.B.I. has been able to pretty well determine what happened during the hijacking, but has no clues as to who Cooper actually is or how the skyjacker got to Portland International Airport.

The agent thinks Cooper got the idea for the crime from a news report two weeks before about a hijacking attempt in Canada where the man was captured before the plane got off the ground.

Himmelsbach said the F.B.I. continues work on the mystery. "We've pledged to the public and to ourselves to give everything a hard look," he said.

Himmelsbach said not every "little detail" on the case has been made public

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DB Cooper-1722[7] 1[4]-8/-[8]1[42] [illegible symbols] b6 b7C FBI/DOJ