FD-350 clipping (duplicate copy): 'Cooper in lake, ex-agent says', Daily News, Longview
This copy: Part 70 p. 207Also filed at Part 43 p. 216 (primary) · Part 63 p. 42 · Part 66 p. 97
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(FD-350), Daily News Longview, 'Cooper in lake, ex-agent says'
Document date 13 February 1980
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Part of: FD-350 clipping, Daily News (Longview), 'Cooper in lake, ex-agent says'
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Id: Cooper-Part-70:207-207
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-70:207-207 Document: Clipping (FD-350), Daily News Longview, 'Cooper in lake, ex-agent says' Id: Cooper-Part-70:207-207 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-70%3A207-207 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 70 p. 207 (DB Cooper-30020), News clipping, dated 13 Feb 1980 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-70%3A207-207
FD-850 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p. B1 Daily News Longview, Wa. Date: 2/13/80 Edition: Final
Title: NORSAK
Character: or Classification: 164-31 Submitting Office: Seattle
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Cooper in lake, ex-agent says
By Bud May The Daily News
The body of skyjacker D.B. Cooper lies on the bottom of Lake Merwin, most likely hung up on a snag.
Retired FBI Agent Tom Manning of Longview has held that theory for several years, and still does.
The fact that some of the ransom money Cooper got from Northwest Airlines was found Sunday on a Columbia River beach north and west of Vancouver has not changed his conviction in the least.
Manning, now manager of the Longview Chamber of Commerce, had charge of the massive searches conducted in the Lewis River area after the infamous skyjacking of a Northwest Airlines jet on Thanksgiving Eve in 1971.
Because he worked so long on a case that has never been solved, the former resident agent has taken a lot of ribbing from friends and acquaintances.
"Some still call me D.B. Cooper," he said with a chuckle Tuesday night.
Manning never believed the skyjacker survived the jump with $200,000 in ransom money, and was among the first to say so.
"I said several years ago that I think he may be hung up on a snag at the bottom of Lake Merwin, and I still think so," Manning said after learning Tuesday that some of the ransom money had been found.
Manning said the fact that the money was found upstream, rather than downstream from the mouth of the Lewis River, doesn't disprove his theory.
He said it could have been moved upstream by tides and currents.
George Holmes, a hydrologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, says that would not have been impossible, but he considers it unlikely that currents would have moved the cash that far upstream.
"However," Holmes, emphasized, "I'm not taking issue in any way with the theory of where the hijacker may have come down after leaving the plane, or where the rest of the money might be."
Manning recalls vividly the inten-
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sive search conducted east of Woodland in the Lewis River area.
He says Charles Farrell of Seattle was the FBI agent in charge of the case, while Manning coordinated the searches. Other agents from the Seattle and Portland FBI offices were also involved. In addition, about 200 soldiers from Fort Lewis were used in an inch by inch grid search conducted in March of 1972 after the winter snows melted.
Despite the fact that no trace of Cooper was found, Manning and other agents remained convinced he had jumped somewhere in the Lewis River-Lake Merwin area, where crewmen of the Boeing 727 noted a fluctuation in the cabin rate of pressure indicator about 8:10 p.m.
Minutes earlier lights came on in the cockpit indicating the rear airstair of the aircraft had been lowered.
"Using the same aircraft, we made some tests three days after the hijacking, and the results gave credence to the theory that he jumped in the area the crew told us about," Manning said.
Manning was aboard the plane, flown by the chief pilot of the airline, when it was taken over the Pacific Ocean off the Hoquiam bombing range for the tests. Also present was the same flight engineer who was on duty the night of the incident.
"We took along some wooden sleds with sandbags to approximate the weight of Cooper, the parachutes given him and the ransom money, and dropped them from the plane when the flying conditions were the same as they were at the time he bailed out," Manning recalled.
The airstair was lowered, and the sleds dropped.
"The engineer said the plane reacted the same as it had before when the weight was released," Manning said Tuesday.
According to Manning, the FBI and the airline were convinced then that the man calling himself D.B. Cooper bailed out of the jet in the Lewis River area, and nothing has happened to shake that belief.
Where he landed has never been determined, but Manning still thinks Lake Merwin is a good [cut off]
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SEARCHED.......... INDEXED...... SERIALIZED.......... FILED.......... FEB 21 1980 FBI - SEATT[LE]
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b6 b7C
DB Cooper-30020 FBI/DOJ
P1/SUBS: FILE, [guess: M]
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11-81-[illegible] SLE-11
Serials: 164-31