Ckret

Katzeye, you must be one of them. A chicken omelette with goat's cheese, green onion and sour cream, the best. edit: not a chicken omelette but a lawyer

For Cooper to have gone into the Columbia 305 would have had to cross the Columbia. This, according to the flight crew didn't happen, they felt Cooper jumped before this point.

The money could not have survived in the elements unprotected much longer than a year. If we go beyond a year (unprotected by the bag) the bills would have been further deteriorated than what was found. edit: given the already 8 years it had been in an uncontroled environment

377, that movie is my professional life, FBI, skydiving (investigation not jumping) and bank robbery

Might I say you people are on fire, i never give up hope but i do have my moments when i think why bother. The last two days have been great, we need a hydrologist. Or we can just have Sluggo and Snowmman drink a few cups of coffee and do more research on the net. i am sure if the two of them put their heads together they can be hydrologist by morning. "Wonder twins power activate... "

I concur. If I were an FBI agent... I'd contact Brian Ingram and ask him what, if anything, he found near or under the money. Although, had I been Brian, I would be yelling to my dad, "Hey, Dad, come over here there's a whole bunch of money!!" I sure as hell wouldn't be taking notice of anything *but* the money. Never the less, if Brian told an FBI agent, back then or now, anything about the area around the money...such as describing old suspension line or old pieces of tattered cloth...a VERY big part of this puzzle would be in place with many questions answered. And...we will have narrowed the search area for hardware, and possibly harness webbing, to only a few thousand square miles up river to the point where the aircraft course passes over, or near by, a tributary. If I were an FBI agent... Guru, in here we are all FBI agents, your on the job

Snowmman, I already quoted Silence of the Lambs, in my mind only Point Break is worth ongoing quotes. now thats a movie

The orders the night of the jump came like this, in fact I think it was used in a movie..... "What I want out of each and every one of you is a hard target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and dog house in that area." So yes every avenue was searched. Lots of bones turn up when hikers go into the woods around here. Very strange and wonderful place. No bones recovered so far can be related to the Cooper Caper.

Bigsky, Your right, way to keep them straight. The money did not arrive at Tenas Bar prior to 1974, and probably not until the earliest of late 78. It also had to arrive still in the bag. According to everything we are putting together he did not jump over Vancouver, north of Vancouver.

Here's the scoop on the Cook suspect, for many reasons it can't be him but this one seals it for me: The story Cook is telling is that Gossett said he jumped into Oregon not Washington. Gossett claimed he thumped the sides of the aircraft over the Vancouver area to fool the crew and jumped much later. Anytime someone jumps from the stairs in an unlocked state it creates a pressure wave. There was only one pressure wave and it was while near the Vancouver area not past Portland. The money find is explained as planting it to throw off the investigation. There is no logical connection to planting the money at Tenas Bar to throw off the investigation. The year is off as well, the plant apparently occurred prior to 1974. There's more but that's enough for me.

The new search area is maybe 20 miles "as the plane flies" from the original location and by now is covered with houses. What was it like in 1971? once we have the area narrowed down that wont be difficult to show by using records from the clerks office. If it was still heavily wooded and Cooper died he would have been consumed.

The money now brings us home. We can reasonably state the money arrived at its location by nature not at the hand of someone. From its condition and position we can conclude the money arrived at the discovery location still in the bag. which, of course, is a big clue that the bag either broke away from Cooper when he jumped or he died in the jump and bag eventually broke away from his body. We now need someone to jump from a plane with a cloth bag full of 20 lbs of paper (tied as Cooper tied his) attached to themselves. This will test the theory of the bag separating from Cooper upon jumping. If we can prove the bag broke free, we then need to drop a cloth bag from 10,000 ft with 20 pounds of paper to see how far it drifts. Or we can just assume the bag broke free based on the facts of the money find and skip the jump. Once we have the distance the bag can travel, a hydrologist needs to pinpoint a location nearest to the 8:15 PM flight path that could drain into the Columbia. If the pieces of the puzzle fit we solved part of the mystery. If it is way off, back to work.

The winds and direction for an 8:15 jump + or - one minute. direction/ wind speed/ height 225 degrees 20 knots 7,000 230 degrees 25 knots 5,000 235 degrees 20 knots 2,000 235 degrees 15 knots surface

I have posted the winds for Portland, the direction and from 7000 feet to ground. The info was gathered from an average of recorded winds from 8 PM to 9 PM 11/24/1971. Great stuff Sluggo?

Yes, I feel a love tap on the way.

I am positive Ratazcak was talking about Vancouver when he said, "we had not yet reached Portland proper but we were definitely in the suburbs or immediate vicinity." Suburbs meaning Vancouver for the very reason you pointed out.

Jo states "I will state that his grammar was not the best but he strived to improve it even during our marriage and because of my daugter - (he didn't want her correcting him)." Cooper was described as well spoken.

Taking everything we know and putting it all together, I think we have a real shot at figuring where Cooper actually jumped. At 7:42 PM PST, 6 minutes after takeoff, Cooper tries to open the airstairs. Not familiar with opening them in flight, he was perplexed when they only partially opened. Cooper called to the cockpit to relay the problem. Captain Scott slows and levels the flight and the stairs drop to approximately 20 degrees. Cooper sees this and realizes the stairs are being held up against the airstream. By the time Cooper figures this out his plan has been side tracked by the delay in opening and has put him outside of his planned DZ. He now has to think on his feet and come up with what he is going to do. He decides to go for it and make it up as he goes along, after all, that is what he was going to do anyway, just closer to Seattle. At 8:05 PM PST, Cooper tells Scott everything is fine when asked over the intercom. He is ready to go forward but he has to test out the stairs and how they are going to respond to his weight. Five minutes later at 8:10 "ish" he starts out onto the stairs and they drop down further. The stairs are now open enough that the cabin pressure gauge starts to oscillate as reported in the TTY log or fluctuate as stated in the handwritten log and recreated from tests conducted by the FBI. Cooper spends several minutes testing out the stairs and trying to get some idea of where he his. Once he orients himself, Cooper jumps, the stairs snap up causing the pressure bump felt by the crew. The crew had already reported the abnormal fluctuations so they believed this "bump" was just a continuation of what started at 8:11 PM. Because of this they don't report it. They do have conversation, however, Radazcak said he could see the northern suburbs of Portland when this occurred. He also said it occurred 5 to 10 minutes after last contact at 8:05 PM.

Flight test data: On 01/06/1972, NWA, FBI and Air Force personnel flew the 727 used for 305 out over the Pacific with two 230 lb sleds (Coopers body weight of 180 lb + money + weight of chutes). Once in the test area the plane was flown with flaps at 15 degrees, wheels down, approximately 150 knots. When the airstairs were released, they dropped 20 degrees. There was a slight change in cabin pressure seen only on the gauge. Air Force Captain Wilson and M/Sgt Saiz separately walked down the airstairs (wearing parachutes) and stood at the bottom. Each reported that the stairs lowered to almost a level position, they were stable, no drag from the wind and they could stand fully upright. When at the bottom of the stairs the cabin pressure gauge showed significant changes. They then dropped the two sleds and on both tests the sleds dropped directly down (there was a theory that Cooper would have been slammed up against the tail when he jumped). The moment the sleds cleared the stairs the flight crew felt a popping in their ears and the cabin pressure gauge reacted violently. It was discovered from chase plane photo's, video and reports from Wilson and Saiz that the pressure change was caused by the stairs being forced upward by the airstream after the weight was removed. Second Officer Anderson, who was present for the test and served on the flight crew of 305 the night of the hijacking, stated what was felt during the test was identical to what was experienced the night of the hijacking.

I discovered another document yesterday where we interviewed the lead test pilot for the 727 project. He stated it is impossible for the plane to takeoff with the airstairs down and locked. That they had done several tests deploying them for a certain company that was interested in doing "food" drops. (I'll leave that one alone) He said when the airstairs are deployed nothing gets sucked out of the aircraft. There are only small fluctuations in pressure. So my mission today (as I avoid a boat load of admin paper I have been putting off) is to find the file on the tests we did with flight 305. More progress, I think I am closing in on proving Cooper jumped further south.

377, I have prepared the basement for you.... "it puts the lotion in the basket..." IT PUTS THE LOTION IN THE BASKET!!!!

Georger, No accent, nothing that would put him in the North South East or West, or overseas. just a plain old American.

"Hmmm, and all this time I thought Lincoln-Mercury started making Cougars in 1967. You're telling me that Cougars were being made in 1924?" Quade, You win the day "U Sum Bitch" Now thats FUNNY, I don't care you are. Git-R-Done

377, could I have hit a home run with that "injection pump" comment. My head is about to explode trying not to go for it.