Deputy Assistant Director's Note re NORJAK background and recent events
Document date 2008
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Id: Cooper-Part-52:284-284
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-52:284-284 Document: Deputy Assistant Director's Note re NORJAK background and recent events Id: Cooper-Part-52:284-284 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-52%3A284-284 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 52 p. 284 (DB Cooper-21966), Memo, dated 2008 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-52%3A284-284
DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR'S NOTE
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UNSUB, aka DAN COOPER; NORJAK; CAA - HIJACKING; OO: SEATTLE; SE 164A-81 (PENDING)~ 9477
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Background: On 11/24/1971, Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight, from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, by claiming he had a bomb. Cooper demanded four parachutes and $200,000. The hijacker eventually jumped from the back of the plane with a parachute and the ransom money, somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada. Although it is likely the hijacker did not survive the jump, if living, the hijacker would likely be in his mid to late 70's. The FBI Investigation, dubbed "NORJAK", for Northwest hijacking, has totaled over 1000 interviews, tracked leads involving all FBI Field Offices, and considered more than 800 suspects. In 1980, a young boy found approximately $5,800 in decaying $20 bills, that matched the ransom money serial numbers.
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Recent Events: Various agents have been assigned over the years to manage the leads that continue to come in regarding the investigation and to manage the DNA Project. In 2004, a re-submission of evidence resulted in the recovery of male nuclear DNA and was entered into CODIS for future identification and elimination of suspects. The DNA Project identified possible candidates for DNA comparison and individuals from which a DNA sample should be obtained. In 2006, the Laboratory Division determined the degraded DNA sample could only be used to exclude individuals as possible donors. To date, only a few of the original suspect pool have been included in the DNA Project for comparison with negatives.
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In recognition of the 35th anniversary of the hijacking (November 2008), the Seattle Division granted limited media access to various portions of the case files. Numerous e-mails were received in response, but nothing substantive until early March, when the Seattle Division was contacted by [REDACTED] of Amboy, WA. [REDACTED] children recovered a parachute from an area on his property where [REDACTED] was grading the property with a tractor. Apparently [REDACTED] unearthed the parachute without his knowledge and his children discovered it while playing in the area. The children recovered the parachute by cutting the chute from the canopy lines, which were deeply embedded in the ground. [REDACTED] attempted to recover the remaining portions of the parachute but his children were unable to locate the original area where the parachute was discovered. Based on comparative analysis of the location of the parachute with Cooper's probable jump zone, the discovery is plausible. The parachute is currently being analyzed and reviewed by subject matter experts to determine if the parachute is consistent with the age and type known to have been used by Cooper. This will determine if further investigation is warranted. If the preliminary investigation confirms the parachute is related, a determination will be made for further investigation at the recovery site.
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**S:\DRAFTS\[REDACTED]\DAD NOTE.wpd
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b6 b7C DB Cooper-21966
Serials: SE 164-81