excerpted from thread link above:
"chetlaw [chetlaw made 2 727 jumps near Yosemite CA as Treat Williams stunt double in the movie Search for DB Cooper].
Junior Charter Member
FFCars Craftsman
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: San Clemente, California
Posts: 502
His name is (or was) Norton Thomas. He disappeared about 20 years ago while ferrying a Beech D18 to Hawaii. His disappearance was, to say the least, pretty suspicious; He reported engine problems to the other Beechcraft accompanying him and just disappeared. This happened at night and those of us who knew Norton like to believe he headed for South America with the money.
Anyway, Norton was from California, but moved to the Northwest about 5 years before the highjacking. He was a highly experienced skydiver and pilot. He was a colorful and fun-loving character who knew a lot of low people in high places as well as high people in low places. He was a lawyer who either had been, or at least had connections with the Hells Angels out of Oakland. His girlfriend, Jeannie McCombs, was a national skydiving champion who was killed in a skydiving accident in Elsinore California shortly after working on the film "Private Benjamin."
When I saw the composite drawing of D.B. Cooper, the first thing I thought was "that's Norton Thomas." He was a dead-ringer for the composite. Evidently, the FBI thought so too because they questioned him more than once. He never admitted it to me or anyone I know, but he never denied it either (except, of course to the FBI). As far as I know, the consensus of those who knew him is that he was the one most likely to have pulled it off.
The skydiving community is pretty small and was much smaller back in 1971. For D.B. Cooper to have pulled it off, he would have had to have had some skills and knowledge (or, just maybe have been awfully lucky). Norton had those skills and knowledge and was just nuts enough to have done it."
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