Part 10, page 237

Transcript

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DB Cooper-1465

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Skyjacker Cooper's 'night' recalled

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What was perhaps the most famous skyjack in history began in Portland on Thanksgiving eve six years ago. The man identified as Dan Cooper parachuted out of a Northwest Airlines plane on Nov. 24, 1971. He had boarded the 727 jet a few hours earlier at Portland International Airport. En route to Seattle, threatening the crew with a gun and a bomb, he exhibited a note demanding four parachutes and $200,000. When the plane landed in Seattle, the 36 passengers got off. The money and parachutes were rounded up by Northwest, and the craft took off with only a flight crew of four and Cooper. Somewhere over the rugged, brushy terrain east of Woodland, Wash., Cooper jumped out. "It was a stormy night, with freezing rain at the high altitude and winds gusting up to 40 mph at Portland International Airport, maybe stronger along the Lewis River where he bailed out," says Ralph Himmelsbach of the FBI. The plane continued to Reno where it landed, the stair door of the rear exit through which Cooper jumped still open. He took ths 10,000 $20 bills with him in a small satchel. He left behind two of the parachutes, including the best for his purpose, a sky diver's chute. Cooper had no hat nor goggles. He was dressed in a business suit and oxford street shoes. "His shoes would have been snapped off his feet when he stepped out into the 196 mph slipstream," Himmelsach said he was told by parachute experts. "His eyes would have been blacked by the force of the wind and he probably tumbled out of control. He would have landed in his

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stocking feet, blinded by the slipstream and the raging storm." With the 28-foot canopy on his chute, the FBI agent said, Cooper "would have descended 26 mph vertically." "Add a 30 to 50 mph wind and he would have hit at a speed of 50 to 70 mph," the agent estimated. "The experts say it is inconceivable that he could have escaped serious injury or instant death — even assuming his parachute opened." When Cooper parachuted out, he took with him the note in which he threatened to blow up the plane if his demands were not met. But he left behind the "bomb" he carried in an attache case. It turned out to be nothing but some highway flares and a battery.

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Party to celebrate 'Cooper's Landing'

ARIEL, Wash. — D.B. Cooper, mark your calendar. You're invited to a party Nov. 26. And your $20 bills will also be welcome. That's the invitation going out to the skyjacker who reputedly landed near this small community six years ago. The organizers of the annual "Coopers Capers" say the shindig will kick off at noon at the Ariel Tavern and Store. Hope to see you at "Cooper's Landing."

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JOYCE LAIN KENNEDY ...regularly! Oregon Journal