Part 43, page 262

Transcript

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FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78) (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p.Cl Oregonian Portland, Wa. Date: 2/13/80 Edition: Final

Title:

Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle

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Cooper expert to close out career

The finding of some of the "Dan Cooper" hijacking money Sunday came is a dramatic climax to the career of Jean Ralph Himmelsbach, the FBI's Cooper expert.

Himmelsbach, himself a veteran pilot, has lived, breathed and slept the Dan Cooper case ever since a man using that name hijacked a Northwest Airlines jet from Portland on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971.

Himmelsbach, who has logged thousands of hours of flying time in his own 1952 model single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza, was aloft in an Oregon Air National Guard helicopter ready to intercept the hijacked plane within a few minutes after the airliner took off from Seattle, where Cooper obtained $200,000 and four parachutes. But the air turbulence that night was so severe that the helicopter was ordered back to Portland Airbase.

Next morning Himmelsbach started the first of a series of flights which took him the length of the hijack route many times, between investigating other clues, all of which proved to be false.

"I was over the target area near Lake Merwin Sunday again," he said Tuesday. "I saw they had logged a lot of prime search area, and thought something would turn up now."

But he never guessed the news that would confront him when he reported for work Monday.

"I'll admit to a certain sense of satisfaction," Himmelsbach said Tuesday, flashing a broad smile. "The case isn't solved, but this is certainly a major milestone."

Himmelsbach will retire March 1, after 27 years with the FBI — climaxed by his work on the Cooper case, one that will go down in FBI history.

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SEARCHED ✓ INDEXED ✓ SERIALIZED ✓ FILED ✓ FEB 25 1980 FBI - SEATTLE

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FBI/DOJ

DB Cooper-17482