Part 54, page 89

Transcript

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THE UNAILING SEARCH -- A helicopter takes off from search headquarters at Woodland, Wash., to scour the area highjacker Dan Cooper night have parachuted into two days before, Nov. 24, 1971. Exhaustive searches at the time brought no results. The flow of

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clues, hints and tips from the public has slowed to a trickle now, and after checking out more than 1,000 suspects the FBI says it knows little more about Cooper than on the stormy night he disappeared.

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SKYDIVER INTO OBSCURITY -- This is an artist's composite drawing of the hijacker known as Dan Cooper who leapt into history on Nov. 24, 1971. He parachuted from an airliner somewhere over southwest Washington state with $200,000 in $20 bills and there's been no sign of him since -- although for a time he did live on as a folk hero of sorts. (Mobile Press Register AP Newfeatures Photo)

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EDITOR'S NOTE - There's almost no chance that Dan Cooper, who parachuted from an airliner with $200,000 strapped to his body, is still alive. But if he is, the statute of limi- tations for his skyjack runs out Thanksgiving eve.

By JOE FRAZIER Associated Press Writer PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A mis- erably wet, windy, cold Thanksgiving eve in 1971.

Passengers waited at the Northwest Orient Airlines counter at Portland International Airport to book space on flight 305 to Seattle.

Many thought ahead to family unions, turkey diners, long relaxed conversations and perhaps a additional game of bridge or Monopo- ly later. But one didn't.

Dan Cooper paid cash for his ticket, cn, clutching a paper sack, boarded a Boeing 727 for the 30-minute flight.

A few minutes after the plane nosed into the storm, he made his move. He told the stewardess what he said was a dynamite bomb and demanded four parachutes, $200,000 in $20 bills, and no funny stuff.

All the passengers but Cooper got off at Seattle, unaware that anything was wrong.

The money and parachutes were put

on board and the jet, with only the crew and Cooper aboard, headed for Reno on Cooper's orders.

Then somewhere over southwest Washington, Cooper, with the 21 pounds of money strapped to him, bailed out.

He hasn't been heard from since.

If he's alive, and that's a big "if," the five-year statute of limitations runs out this Thanksgiving eve, Nov. 24.

Or does it?

"We're going ahead on the assump- tion that the statute doesn't apply, because when he did what he did, capital punishment was a possibility. There's no statute on capital crimes," says FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach.

Anyway, he says, chances are good that Cooper is dead.

"Not one of the 10,000 bills has shown up, and we know the serial number of every one of them," he said. And Cooper apparently knew nothing about skydiving.

In a business suit and street shoes, he jumped from the rear door of a jet going 197 m.p.h. at 10,000 feet. At that elevation it was seven below zero that night, with a wind-chill factor of 69 below zero.

The plane was in clouds. "Up looked like down to him. He had no visual reference. He couldn't have possibly known where he was."

Cooper picked some of the roughest country in the Pacific Northwest. He took two of the four parachutes with him when he jumped. One was a small emergency chute of the type used by stunt flyers. Under ideal conditions, someone who knew what he was doing might break an ankle or leg with it.

The other was a training chute used for demonstrations. The panels had been sewn shut. It wouldn't have opened.

Then next night the FBI re-enacted the skyjacking using the same plane, crew, fuel load, speed and altitude. The test helped flight engineers and meteorologists to compute the probable drop zone to be a triangular area covering about 25 square miles.

It has been searched and re- searched in vain. What would it take to find Cooper's remains, assuming they are there? "I'd say it might take 5,000 men five years. I mean, how do you search a blackberry thicket higher than your head?"

Loggers who work in the area agree that coyotes, mountain lions or wild cats would make quick work of a body. After five years, they say, you might find a scrap or two of bone, if that.

Nevertheless, for a while Cooper was a fob hero of sorts. He was macho. He was daring. He didn't hurt anybody, but he ripped off a big corporation. And he beat the fuzz.

There were imitators. Around the world, there were more than a dozen skyjacking attempts patterned after Cooper's. Cooper is the only one not known to have failed.

With increased airport security and modification of the Boeing 727 so the rear door wouldn't open in flight, the fad stopped.

The flow of clues, hints, and tips from the public about Dan Cooper has slowed to a trickle now. After check- ing out more than 1,000 suspects, the FBI says it knows little more about Cooper than it did on that stormy night when he leapt into history.

Himmelsbach said the whole thing was probably put together with minimal planning and that the bomb was a bundle of relatively harmless

highway flares. The bomb was red. Dynamite isn't. If the crew members had realized that, they might have called his bluff at the time, Himmelsbach said. "He's lucky he got as far as he did with a plan like that."

Even if the statute holds up, Cooper will have problems. The Internal Revenue Service com- putes his tax debt, including penalties and interest, at about $198,000. And the Globe Indemnity Co., which had to pay $180,000 to the airline, may want to talk to him.

So now, what?

"We won't rule out the possibility that we may never know. "But [guess: we] never said I guess we can live with [illegible] sure to [illegible]"

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A LITTLE AT A TIME When painting a ceil- ing with solvent-thinned paint, never try to paint an area more than two feet wide, says the National Paint and Coatings Association. The dry edges of your laps may mar the finish- ed effect.

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