Georger wrote: "The fact that ANY money was found outside its container, after Coop bailed, carries a strong chance ALL of his money was compromised somehow."

You have a point Georger.  If something was violent or forceful enough to cause some of the bills to escape, what would prevent the rest from following? I don't think he had isolated cargo compartments.

And R 99 is right, impact at terminal velocity would breach most loaded carry bags.

Ah that damn T Bar money. It just messes up so many otherwise plausible DBC theories.

377

I wonder what the money bag looked like with McNally?
Also, notice how easy he found valuable information...

One thousand feet above the Boeing 727, from the vantage point of a military surveillance plane, an FBI agent observed a small, dark object falling rapidly from the rear hatch.

McNally dropped like a bullet, feet-first, and the first thing he perceived was the wind punching his flight goggles into his eye sockets. In seconds, the goggles were violently ripped from his head. McNally threw out his arms, bringing his body parallel to the ground as he began counting down from twenty in his mind. Basing his calculations on the formula for terminal velocity — which he'd learned in a library physics textbook — McNally figured that this would be enough time to slow his fall to a safe speed. If he pulled the chute too early, he knew, the air would shred the canopy like tissue paper.

The time came to test his math. McNally fumbled for the ripcord with his right hand, but he made the mistake of leaving his left arm outstretched. Instead of producing the serene, deliberate movements of an experienced skydiver, the wind took hold of his arm and slammed the hijacker into a furious spin.

In the midst of the chaos, the parachute exploded out of the chest harness and ejected its spring-loaded contents directly into McNally's face. Blinded and hurting, he managed to grab hold of the shroud lines above him. He tugged hard, and was rewarded with resistance as the canopy filled with air.

McNally was going to live after all. His hand strayed down to his left thigh, hoping to be reassured by its half-million dollars.

He could only look down in horror. The mailbag was twenty feet below him, and getting smaller and smaller by the second. As if in a dream, McNally watched the fortune tumble in slow-motion, end-over-end, until it slipped below the clouds and vanished.

Added: Three days later, searchers found the full money sack and gun in fields near Peru, Ind. A fingerprint led to their man, a bruised but alive former Navy sailor named Martin J. McNally, 28, of suburban Detroit. "Wilson" had $13 in his pocket.

If he died, however, someone was suddenly missing. A car went abandoned. A renter stopped paying. A mortgage went into default. Utility bills stacked up unpaid. A friend or relative disappeared. Those things should have been noticed and tied to a possible suspect who looked even a little bit like the sketches.

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If he died, however, someone was suddenly missing. A car went abandoned. A renter stopped paying. A mortgage went into default. Utility bills stacked up unpaid. A friend or relative disappeared. Those things should have been noticed and tied to a possible suspect who looked even a little bit like the sketches.

That's the way I feel about it, but of course I like the story a lot more when it ends with him walking out of the woods.

377's remarks could also suggest that Cooper did not live in the northwest even though he was familiar with the Seattle area.  Maybe Cooper had spent a lot of time out of the USA just before the hijacking.

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If he died, however, someone was suddenly missing. A car went abandoned. A renter stopped paying. A mortgage went into default. Utility bills stacked up unpaid. A friend or relative disappeared. Those things should have been noticed and tied to a possible suspect who looked even a little bit like the sketches.

That's the way I feel about it, but of course I like the story a lot more when it ends with him walking out of the woods.

Shutter are you talking about the fellow who jumped from the over wing escape hatch of a DC-10, rather than a 727, over Indiana?  It seems that the Captain of the DC-10 was asked to slow the plane down but speeded up instead.  The jump was made at about 300 MPH and the hijacker lost most of his clothes.  The money was found in a farmer's field the next day.

Lost his clothes? Hmmm. I haven't heard of anyone losing his duds. McNally confirmed that he figures the place was going 300 mph when he jumped. Heady, too.