Schaffner’s note contained directions. The hijacker wanted four parachutes and $200,000 in greenbacks. The bills were to be in $20 denominations and in sequential order. The forty-five minute flight was extended; the plane circled Seattle-Tacoma Airport as the authorities gathered the money and parachutes.
There was no commotion on the plane, Cooper had nerves of steel. Money and chutes gathered, the jet was radioed to land at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport. Confident Cooper had the passengers disembark except for the two pilots and Schaffner.
In a well-lit area, the jet was refueled as four nylon parachutes and a satchel with one hundred packets of ransom money was delivered to Cooper. Why four parachutes, there was only one hijacker? The FBI reasoned Cooper would force his three hostages to bail out of the plane with him.
Tanks filled, Cooper instructed the pilot to fly to Reno where the jet was to refuel again. The sky bandit’s destination was Mexico City. Cooper told his three captives the jet was to fly at an altitude of ten thousand feet, the cabin was not to be pressurized, and the speed of the craft was to be no faster than one hundred and ninety five miles per hour.
At 7:46 PM the hijacked jet was airborne, destination Reno. Cooper ordered Schaffner into the cockpit with the pilots. There was no window on the flight-deck door, Cooper was isolated and out of view. At 8 PM a red light flashed on the jet’s instrument panel. A door had somehow opened on the plane. The pilot inquired by intercom if there was anything he could do for the hijacker. Depending on the source, “No”, was Cooper’s reply, or “I can’t get the door open, fly slower.”
One deponent claims the plane’s wing flaps were lowered from fifteen to thirty degrees and the craft’s landing gear was deployed. The jet was slowed to a speed of one hundred and sixty seven miles per hour. At 8:24 PM or 8:13 PM, depending on the corroborator, the pilot noticed a bump, as if the plane had been lightened. On schedule the hijacked liner landed at Reno, at 10:15 PM.
After many minutes and no response from Cooper to the pilot’s questions over the intercom, the cockpit door was opened. The pilots and Schaffner quickly searched the plane. Cooper, the money satchel, and two parachutes were gone.
It was deduced the planned Mexico leg of the flight was a ruse. The FBI calculated Cooper had bailed out of the jet near Ariel, Washington. Cooper’s drop zone was a timbered area, bisected by county roads and Interstate 5. This assumption was based on when the jet lost its trim.
With Cooper’s landing zone identified, the FBI along with local authorities began a massive manhunt. Civilian groups, guides, and the Boy Scouts joined the search. Helicopters and planes scoured western Washington’s backwoods. Cooper, his chute or tracks were never found. The posses unearthed everything imaginable; rusted cars, an abandoned swimming pool, even the body of a lost teenage hiker were found.
After failing to get their man, the dragnet was called off. The FBI theorized Cooper jumped from the plane into a storm. The rain collapsed Cooper’s chutes. The robber plunged to the ground. However, if Cooper had landed alive, the hijacker would have been shoeless. The violent winds blew off Cooper’s loafers as he skydived. The G-Men’s logic was that Cooper would have died in the woods because nobody can hike out of the wilderness in socks. J. Edgar Hoover’s agents were embarrassed by Cooper’s escape. To mask their frustration over the case, all types of nonsensical conclusions were handed out to the press. Sadly, the media never questioned the constabulary’s inept logic.
During the post-investigation recaps, it was rumored Cooper had chosen the dummy chute and jumped. The fake parachute deployed into a streamer, the hijacker crashed into the ground at two hundred miles per hour. The FBI’s line was unmistakable, no matter what had transpired, the aerial corsair was now a decomposing corpse in the timbers of Washington.
FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach, who headed the Cooper investigation, tended to underestimate the sky bandit. Many times Himmelsbach would claim, “Cooper was a desperate man, who worked in the service industry. The air pirate was incapable of planning an intricate heist due to his limited education.”
On February 10, 1980, while digging a picnic firepit for his parents along the Columbia River, eight-year-old Brian Ingram found $5,800 dollars in the sand. The money was under an inch of silt, on the Washington side of the river, at Kent’s Bar. The sand covered, three stacked sections of rotted currency, was purported to be part of Cooper’s 1971 loot. The authorities searched the shoreline and the surrounding areas, which are twelve miles from Vancouver. Nothing else was found. The high sheriffs reiterated to the media, Cooper had not been brought to justice because he died after exiting the plane. Were the lawmen correct, did Cooper get splashed in the Columbia River?
The FBI labeled Cooper a loser, who was out for a last hurrah. During the heist Cooper was covered in perspiration, he cursed and nervously growled, “Lets get this show on the road.” In the past when the FBI has fumbled, be it 1963 Dallas, or 9/11, the agency has drowned the press in double talk, to obscure their mistakes. The Cooper case may be another example of the FBI stretching the facts.
Cooper was a highly intelligent, consummate planner. The bandit picked a jet he could escape from. The crew was ordered not to pressurize the cabin; this was done so the hijacker could open an exit door on the plane while in flight. From the jet’s aft stairwell Cooper bailed out. The hijacked jet, a Boeing 27-100 was the only craft that could fly at the speed Cooper had ordered. Any other passenger jet would stall. Cooper was not a decrepit blunderer out for a suicidal last hurrah. Cooper was a one-man crime spree, who had a creative non-confused mind.
Witnesses dispute what the FBI dispensed. The skyjacker never acted in an uncouth manner, he was the perfect gentleman. Cooper calmly took back his highjack note from stewardess Schaffner and never showed signs of panic. The bandito smoked and drank a bourbon and water. There were no curses or bully tactics. Cooper checked the money in the satchel as the plane flew south. The unsullied man took out two or three bands of bills, which would be four or six thousand dollars. Cooper offered the greenbacks to Schaffner as a tip for his drink.
The stewardess refused, Cooper put the money into one of his pockets. Did these bundles fall from his coat as he skydived? Is this the money that was found in the sand in 1980? The bandit was not a wild-eyed man; he behaved admirably during his long moment of truth.
It is probable, Cooper wore a survival suit under his businessman’s attire, this would account for his sweating. Why did Cooper not pull out a kerchief and wipe the perspiration from his face? Is it possible Cooper did not want to smudge his disguise. Cooper was said to resemble an older Bing Crosby, yet the police drawings do not look right. Was the aerial bandito wearing makeup and putty?
What was in Cooper’s briefcase besides a bomb or was it a fake bomb? Did the big grip carry a compass, rations, goggles, or military gaiters for his shoes? What did Cooper carry in his pockets or trench coat? By his actions Cooper was well prepared. The dapper man had ice water in his veins and was never rattled. During the sky heist, Cooper mentioned he had a wrist altimeter. This device would have given him an exact altitude reading.
Cooper demanded four civilian manually-operated parachutes, rather than military static line parachutes. The authorities claim one of the parachutes given to Cooper was a dummy, this is highly unlikely. Would the constabulary risk killing a hostage by way of a bogus parachute, when they thought Cooper was going to force the hostages to bail out with him? Contradictions abound on whether Cooper jumped with one or with two parachutes. It is hard to not look at the FBI’s assumptions without skepticism, due to all the disinformation.
Some media experts wrongly state, in jumping with the money satchel, Cooper could have only strapped on one parachute. The satchel would have taken the position of the second parachute. Balderdash! The satchel with the money weighed twenty-one pounds. Cooper could have easily wrapped the moneybag to his leg by a cord from his briefcase, similar to what paratroopers do when jumping with a machine gun or containers of ammunition. Cooper would have been able to jump with two parachutes. The primary chute would have been on Cooper’s back and the emergency would have been on his chest or around his lower back.
One account the FBI has recently circulated has Cooper choosing the dummy chute and a