re: New clues in D.B. Cooper case

quote:

---

This quote from the FBI says the exact opposite:

"We originally thought Cooper was an experienced jumper, perhaps even a paratrooper," said Special Agent Larry Carr, leader of the investigative team from 2006 until its dissolution in 2016. "We concluded after a few years this was simply not true. No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky. He also missed that his reserve 'chute was only for training, and had been sewn shut—something a skilled skydiver would have checked."[94] He also failed to bring or request a helmet,[113] chose to jump with the older and technically inferior of the two primary parachutes supplied to him,[49] and jumped into a -70 °F (-57 °C) wind chill without proper protection against the extreme cold.[114]

---

The FBI is so full of shite on so many levels with that claim.

I know a few hundred SERE and Recondo school grads from the old school days who are laughing at the FBI ... who, btw, hates that this case was on their books as long as it was.

And FWIW there have been two similar jumps made over the years just to prove that it was a survivable jump.

quote:

---

The chances of him surviving the jump were so slim. No sane person would jump into a storm like that, at that speed, and in pitch black. He also didn't have a viable reserve chute: it was sewn shut and was only for training. Add in the fact that some of the bills were found scattered about and I think Mr. Cooper died.

---

The reserve was inconsequential. It was a T-10 belly reserve and, if I remember correctly, he belly strapped the bag of money so all he cared about was using the belly reserve as a shield to keep the tree branches from skewing him if he was forced into a tree landing. And the helmet and shoes were inconsequential as well in the overall scheme of things.

BTW ... about that sewn-up belly reserve. Who sews-up a belly reserve for training purposes? For what? 34' tower? The fair towers? Sport school? You don't see them up you pack them with spring loaded dummy rigs so the candidate can practice the pull in various scenarios - but in all my years, and my first jump was as a kid in the 60s with my older brother, I can never remember a seen shut training reserve. And believe me, I've heard of mains and reserves both being packed with all sorts of practical joker motivated stuff ... but I've never seen or heard of one sewn shut. It would defeat so many purposes I wouldn't know where to start trying to explain it.