Part 43, page 31
DB Cooper-17210Serials SE 164-81, SE 164-81-8168
Document date 17 January 1979
FBI 164-81, Vault Part 43 p. 31 (DB Cooper-17210), News clipping, dated 17 Jan 1979, serial SE 164-81-8168 (as read from the transcript) — cooper.theunsolved.net/parts/Cooper-Part-43/pages/31
Transcript
The scan is the source; the transcript is machine-generated from it.
FD-350 (Rev. 10-19-77)
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Possible D.B. Cooper clue found
KELSO — (AP) — A heavy plastic placard from a Boeing 727, found by a hunter in a thickly wooded area, could be a link to the unsolved November 24, 1971, D.B. Cooper skyjacking, authori- ties said today.
Cooper is thought to have para- chuted from a Northwest Airlines jet near Woodland, about 10 miles south of here, with $200,000 in $20 bills.
The placard is described as an emergency-warning notice of the type posted next to the rear exit of 727s.
"There isn't any way that it could have come off a plane with- out the (rear) door being opened," said the Cowlitz County sheriff, Les Nelson. "We know that two days after Cooper jumped that the placard was missing off the plane.
"This is the first probable, tan- gible piece of evidence that has surfaced in the D.B. Cooper case," he added. "It's inconceiva- ble, it's one in a million, that any other plane could have lost it in the area in which D.B. Cooper jumped."
The placard was found about "six flying minutes" from where Cooper is believed to have jumped, said Nelson. It was found last November by an elk hunter, Carroll Hicks, of Kelso, near a Weyerhaeuser Co. logging road north of Ariel, said Nelson.
The Federal Bureau of Investi- gation and sheriff's detectives withheld information about the find while trying to verify the pla- card's origin, he said.
The jet was en route to Seattle from Portland when Cooper hand- ed a stewardess a note saying he had a bomb. After picking up the ransom and two parachutes in Seattle, and allowing the passen- gers and two of three stewardess- es to disembark, Cooper ordered the plane to Reno. When the plane landed in Reno, the rear ramp was down, and the money, one parachute and Cooper were gone.
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Sub'g
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
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p.A1 Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
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Date: 1/17/79 Edition: Final
Title:
Character: or 164-81 Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle 164-81-8168
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COPY SENT TO BUREAU [stamped date illegible] b6 b7C FBI/DOJ DB Cooper-17210