Another option is Bill Mitchell is lying.
The more I study the behavior of the passengers and the crew post-skyjacking I grow more suspect of the narratives presented by Mitchell and the flight attendants.
Increasingly, the Cooper characteristics attributed to Mitchell suggest a "revisionist" view of DB Cooper. Gray adds to this scenario immeasurably by publicly calling DBC a " schlub," a Yiddish term for a guy who is disheveled, sloppy, and off-putting.
Bill Mitchell says he was sitting in 18B, but no one else can confirm that. Further, FBI documents place Robert Gregory in 18C, and also DB Cooper in 18C, which is what Himmelsbach writes and others tout. Clearly there is confusion on this issue.
Fellow passenger Mike Cooper is a solid guy, whereas Bill Mitchell is not, for he is finicky about whom he talks with and why. Mike says he was sitting near or next to Cooper, but doesn't recall exactly what row - only that it was across the aisle from Coop. I problem-solved the seating scenarios with Mike and suggested that he might have been in 17 A or B, and he said, "maybe." When I asked Mike if he remembers the folks who sat around him, he said he couldn't, which I find disappointing but at least it's a honest answer when so many comments from principals do not feel 100% truthful.
Schlubs and Turkey Necks are not the image of a conventional business man, as posited by so many eye-witnesses. Certainly not the image of the "gentleman" who sat next to Tina for hours and whom some passengers thought was a NWO VIP dead-heading back to Seattle for the holidays, as Mike Cooper believed.
