As though the FBI doesn't have better things to do. The Bureau has decided to revive the investigation into the fate of D.B. Cooper, the mystery man who commandeered a Northwest Airlines jet in November, 1971; demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in cash and then bailed out, unseen, somewhere over southwestern Washington state. From The Guardian:
"Who was Cooper? Did he survive the jump? We're providing new information and pictures and asking for your help in solving the case,'' the FBI said in a statement.
The FBI said that while Cooper was originally thought to have been an experienced jumper, it has since concluded that was wrong and that he almost certainly didn't survive the jump in the dark and rain. He hadn't specified a route for the plane to fly and had no way of knowing where he was when he went out the exit.
"Diving into the wilderness without a plan, without the right equipment, in such terrible conditions, he probably never even got his chute open,'' Seattle-based agent Larry Carr said.
He also didn't notice that his reserve chute was intended only for training and had been sewn shut.
Several people have claimed to be Cooper over the years but were dismissed on the basis of physical descriptions, parachuting experience and, later, by DNA evidence recovered in 2001 from the cheap tie the skyjacker left on the plane.
In 1980, a boy walking near the Columbia River found $5,800 of the stolen money, in tattered $20 bills.
"Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream,'' Carr said. "Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle.''
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