FD-350 clipping, Seattle Times (UPI): eighth anniversary of D.B. Cooper hijacking
This copy: Part 54 pp. 132–133Also filed at Part 43 pp. 41–42 (primary)
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FD-350 clipping: "After 8 years, D.B. Cooper hijacking remains a mystery" (UPI), Seattle Times, 11/22/79
Document date 22 November 1979
Another copy of this document is the primary, most legible copy: Part 43 pp. 41–42.
Copies may differ in what was redacted.
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Id: Cooper-Part-54:132-133
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-54:132-133 Document: FD-350 clipping: "After 8 years, D.B. Cooper hijacking remains a mystery" (UPI), Seattle Times, 11/22/79 Id: Cooper-Part-54:132-133 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-54%3A132-133 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
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FBI 164-81, Vault Part 54 pp. 132–133 (DB Cooper-23058–23059), News clipping, dated 22 Nov 1979 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-54%3A132-133
FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p.C11 Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
Date: 11/22/79 Edition: Final
Title: [handwritten notation]
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-enforce- ment 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, 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 inter- esting 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 Thanksgiv- ing eve, 1971, listening to the radio com- munications, recalls how the pilot men- tioned during the flight from Seattle that he thought Cooper had jumped because of a "low pressure bump." The agent said the 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 north- east 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 re- turned 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 hap- pened during the hijacking, but has no clues as to who Cooper actually is or how the skyjacker got to Portland Internation- al 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 be- fore 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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SUB B-[illegible] 16-9/-5119 [illegible] b6 b7C FBI/DOJ
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DB Cooper-23058
— for instance, the colors of the two parachutes Cooper got from the airliner and used in leaving the plane with the money. He said this gives agents a "little edge" to eliminate the "phonies" who either attempt to pin the crime on an acquaintance or to claim they did the skyjacking themselves.
The agent said that in addition to the official time on the case he has also flown over the area of the parachuting in his own plane or on other flights. "I always look to see if I can see something," Himmelsbach said.
Details of the hijacking have become as well known to residents around Lake Merwin as the Indian legends of the area.
For the past few years, a tavern at Ariel on the edge of the lake has held a Thanksgiving eve "D.B. Cooper party" for the hijacker — or anyone else who might want to drop in. Thus far, the guest of honor has not showed up.
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DB Cooper-23059