re: Children of Richard McCoy have turned in a modified parachute to the FBI

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Yet, this heavy smoker in his early 30s humped his way out if that forest with all kinds of underbrush and undulation ... all the while evading 1500 men and dogs looking for him.

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I feel like in my grandfathers day the military guys were all heavy smokers.

And my grandfather was sloughing through the pacific. With the Japanese looking for him.


I think you need a reassessment.


Not that this McCoy guy is db but that the real one dud survive.

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I'm a Jumpmaster and for years was into sport parachuting.

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Thank you for one of the most interesting takes on the affair, knowledge does count for a lot. Very interesting.

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It was a 727 and he jumped off the retractable boarding stairs in the rear, not a full on cargo door.

They were flying with gear down as well and he demanded the pilots reduce speed to less than 200kts.

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Thank you very much ... thaaaat's right. I was thinking the Cooper jump and McCoy jump were two different make and model aircraft (going from memory) but they were both 727s. That was another key component to all of this because Northwest was using DC-8s and DC-10s at the time because of their wide open cargo doors but Cooper chose the 727, as did McCoy. It was a poor choice because the rear loading ramp, while opened and shut through mechanical means, was actually suspended by cables when fully opened and the steps were held in place by gravity at at 45° angle which would have been to steep for Cooper to climb down and launch himself from, with the steps bouncing up and down especially, so it is assumed he dove out from the top two steps which would have caused him to literally be thrown up into the tail of the aircraft ... but he chose it for a reason even though most of the flights out of there were Northwestern DC-10s at the time. And McCoy chose the 727 as well. And you're right, McCoy had flying experience so he ordered landing gear down to get under the 210 knot threshold for the jump ... but as I understood it they never got below 230 knots which, again, would have been a major problem for even the best of jumpers especially off of those staircases.

I dunno. I still think McCoy was a copycat but the artist's sketch is undeniably similar.

Didn't McCoy have a fairly airtight alibi for his whereabouts on the night of the D.B. Cooper hijacking? He was supposed to be in a bar somewhere ... but I think it's been said that he never drank?

It's all such a mystery. I don't think it'll ever be solved.

I'm looking forward to reading the FBI's final take on this rig that was turned over to them. To me it's kind of telling that we've not heard anything after several months. I think the anniversary just passed.

Never saw the composite the stewardess did that is at the 18:14 mark on that YouTube unsolved mysteries video. That's a totally different looking dude.