Part 85, page 285

Transcript

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

THE UNAILING SEARCH —A helicopter takes off from search... headquarters at Woodland, Wash., to scour the area highjacker Dan Cooper might have parachuted into two days before, Nov. 24, 1971. Exhaustive searches at the time brought no results. The flow of clues, hints and tips from the publi[c] 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 INT[ERESTED] drawing of the hij[acker] on Nov. 24, 1971. southwest Washin[gton] been no sign of hi[m] folk are [illegible]

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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 miserably wet, windy, cold Thanksgiving eve in 1971.

Passengers wailed at the Northwest Orient Airlines counter at Portland International Airp[or]t to book space on Flight 105 to Seattle.

Many thought ahead to family reunions, turkey dinners, long relaxed conversations and perhaps a traditional game of bridge or Monopoly later. But one didn't.

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

A few minutes after the plane nosed into the storm, he made his move. He showed 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 amiss.

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 assumption 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."

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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.

The 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 trapezoidal area covering about 25 square miles.

It has been searched and researched 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 dogs could 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 fol[k] hero of sorts. He was nacho. He was daring. He didn't hurt anybody, but he ripped off a big corporation. And he beat the fuzz.

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There were imitato[rs] world, there were mo[re] skyjacking attempts [after] Cooper's. Cooper is th[e] known to have failed.

With increased airpo[rt] modification of the Bo[eing] rear door wouldn't op[en] fad stopped.

The flow of clues, from the public about [Cooper] slowed to a trickle no[w] ing out more than 1,0[00] FBI says it knows lit[tle] Cooper than it did on th[e] when he leapt into his[tory]

Himmelsbach said [he] was probably put [on] minimal planning and was a bundle of rela[tively]

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A LITTLE AT A TIME When painting a ceiling 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 finished effect.

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DB Cooper-37687