Part 119, page 176

Transcript

The scan is the source; the transcript is machine-generated from it.

SF 164-220 ENW/dmp

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estimate the age of these limbs or when they were broken off but that they did not appear to have been recent. Mr. WHEELER advised he speculated that maybe the parachute had been cut in half to make a rope so that the jumper could have lowered himself from the tree if he had been hung up in the tree. He then could have placed half of the parachute under the log, where it was found, and kept the other half to keep warm and maybe use the harness on the parachute as a pack rack to carry out whatever he had with him.

Mr. WHEELER advised he was formerly in the U. S. Forest Service and he noted that the parachute he recovered was similar to parachutes used by the forest service smoke jumpers. However, the parachutes the forest service used, although similar in color, were usually larger than this particular one.

Mr. WHEELER further noted that approximately one mile northeast of where he found the parachute, near the Bear Valley Road, is a grass level meadow area, about 200 acres in size. In addition, south of this area, approximately one mile down Lemon Canyon Road, is another grass meadow flat area, approximately 200 acres in size.

In addition, Mr. WHEELER noted that there is a very small airport at Sierraville, California, and that the beacon light from this airport shines in the direction of where the parachute was found.

Mr. WHEELER advised he recalled that the hijacker in the instant case had the pilot fly at an elevation of approximately 10,000 feet en route to Reno, Nevada. WHEELER noted that on the map, the elevation of Sardine Peak is 8,134 feet, whereas the elevation at Sardine Point, in the same general area, is only 7,575 feet. Mr. WHEELER advised the hijacker may have known this and planned to land in one of the two above described meadows and missed his target but realized the plane would have to fly at 10,000 feet in order to miss Sardine Peak.

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