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DB

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by Bob Parks, Jul 13, 2016.

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  1. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    Nov 29, 2003
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    Robert Parks
    I may have posted this before so please excuse me if I have. I noted on the news tonight that the FBI has closed its activities on the DB Cooper case. I had been laid off for just about one year and we were in a dilapidated old rental south of Seatac airport. I was working on my first attempt to paint aviation subjects in oils and dinner time was almost at hand on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971. I was listening to the air traffic on my radio when I heard something like "We are being highjacked by some guy in the back." It was an NWA 727 that had just landed at SEA. I couldn't believe that I had heard a skyjacking in progress. I called my UAL pilot friend, Jack Leffler and he was already connected to it as well as on a conference call with Ernie Gann. We all listened to it unfold as Cooper demanded 200,000 dollars and four parachutes. It was delivered to him and he and several flight attendants were the only pax on board when the airplane took off. We were south enough and east enough to hear the 727 go over while the pilot was talking to Minneapolis. The pilot said that he was trying to talk the passenger out of a max altitude of 7000 on the course he wanted because "the rocks were a lot higher than that". The head office told him that he was doing a good job and the pilot said that everybody ( flight attendants) were doing a good job. Cooper ordered everybody forward in the lavs and flight deck and to stay there. A short time later the pilot said,"He's gone." He detected a change in CG when Cooper lowered the aft airstair and jumped into the night. It was below 30 deg. and Cooper was dressed in a business suit, a parachute, and 200,000 dollars. The parachutes were supplied by Skysports, east of Seattle, and rumor was that all of them had been rigged to fail. If anyone is interested, the painting on which I was working was the "Stearmans in Denver, 1930." It's on my website.
     
  2. ArtS

    ArtS F1 Veteran
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    Nov 11, 2003
    8,880
    Central NJ
    Bob,
    Thunks for ,the first hand account!

    I just watched a show on Cooper the other night - really interesting.

    Regards,

    Art S.
     
  3. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ
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    Feb 27, 2004
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    Jim Pernikoff
    That I did not know. That would have ruined his day!
     
  4. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    Nov 29, 2003
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    One airline pilot friend said that he hopes when they find Cooper he will be in the woods with a fir tree jammed up his arse. i seem to remember that they tried to calculate where he jumped and it was estimated to be east of Cougar, Wa. DB knew a bit about the 727 and how to activate the aft airstair in flight.
     
  5. energy88

    energy88 Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Love it! Lots of drama in a minimum number of colors.
     
  6. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Great story!
     
  7. Tcar

    Tcar F1 Rookie

    I cannot imagine that they would do that deliberately.

    I remember hearing about that and thought "what if he'd forced a crewmember to jump with him as a hostage"? That was a real possibility.
     
  8. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    I don't know if the hostage syndrome was in place then. The appearance of some of the money on the Columbia River in south Washington state indicates that Cooper dropped it or lost it near where they said that he left the airplane. I can't vouch for those who supplied the chutes but I knew them.
     
  9. Tcar

    Tcar F1 Rookie

    Agree that the money found could indicate that he didn't make it...
     
  10. kylec

    kylec F1 Rookie
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    Jun 9, 2005
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    I have a piece of a ransom bill. Cool piece of Americana.
    I think he lived. None of the other bills ever turned up.
     
  11. tazandjan

    tazandjan Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Jul 19, 2008
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    Terry H Phillips
    Some bills as a false trail would have been a good investment.
     
  12. sigar

    sigar F1 Rookie
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    Apr 30, 2005
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    The local newspaper just had on article on him and claimed after the highjacking he moved to Valley Springs, CA and lived (in and out of jail) under his supposed real name, Richard Rickshaw for several years until the FBI began to close in on him and he disappeared again. I have no idea how likely the paper's claim is.
     
  13. mikesufka

    mikesufka F1 Veteran
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    Mar 4, 2006
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    I just watched that big two part special on the History Channel. It's wrong, but I hope he made it. Kind of like the Alcatraz trio :)

    MDS
     
  14. Tcar

    Tcar F1 Rookie

    #14 Tcar, Jan 16, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2017
  15. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
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    Apr 21, 2003
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  16. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    I think that these latest thoughts on DB are closer to being correct. He DID know a lot about the 727 and how he could use the aft airstair.
     
  17. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
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    With the way things are nowadays you might as well write your memoir about how you were really "Dan Cooper" who hijacked a plane for kicks back in November of '71. You could explain how your extensive engineering experience and knowledge of Boeing aircraft allowed you to successfully pull it off and then go right back to work as a Boeing employee. The ironic twist will be how you used the experienced you gained hijacking the 727 to work in safety features in later Boeing aircraft. The Easter egg at the end of the "confessional" will be how put clues to your hijacking caper into paintings that now hang in Boeing headquarters to this day.

    Now that I have gone and put the idea out there in a public forum you have to write the "true story" about how you did it. You will get internet famous for a week and in the off chance the Feds come sniffing around you just say it's a work of fiction you wrote because of some guy on FChat. Now in the off chance you really actually are DB Cooper then I would stick with the same story that it's MarkPDXs fault for giving you the idea and it's just fiction. Either way it would be a hell of a story. I'm sure you could mix in a lot of very compelling sounding technical info. Even if you just made it all up who would know? You gotta do it Bob :)
     
  18. Spasso

    Spasso F1 World Champ

    Feb 16, 2003
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    Han Solo
    If BP only had the money to show for it...;)
     
  19. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    Heck! That's all I have been doing all this time anyway. i can't spill the beans and show my hand, so, hush.
     
  20. Tcar

    Tcar F1 Rookie

    Nah... Bob would NEVER wear a clip-on tie.
     
  21. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    Mark, your idea has merit but there is one little problem. Cooper jumped into the black night wearing only a business suit and a parachute. If I remember, they were at 7000 ft and the temperature was 30 Deg.and he was over some very dense wooded areas with 100 ft. tall fir trees. As one of my airline pilot friends once said," I hope they find him 100 ft. up with a fir tree jammed up his arse."Anyway, I wish that I could have recorded the radio transmissions as it was happening.
     
  22. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    Right on. They were always the finest silk and tied in a double Windsor.
     
  23. Tcar

    Tcar F1 Rookie

    A class act. :)
     
  24. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Are they sure that's where he jumped, or is that just where he opened the airstair?
     
  25. Tcar

    Tcar F1 Rookie

    No one saw him jump. He opened the airstair and made the crew stay in the cockpit.
    The pax had all been released.

    They said he removed his suit and shirt and tie and had clothes on under the suit.
    He threw the clothes out the back (except the tie, apparently).
     

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