Author Topic: General Questions About The Case  (Read 620050 times)

Offline Shutter

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #30 on: December 08, 2014, 05:16:39 PM »
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For ever picture you can produce of someone in a machine shop wearing a clip-on tie, Tom Kaye can produce a picture of a machine shop employee wearing a fully knotted tie.  So the machine shop illustration is basically a wash.
Just a simple question that will hopefully inspire conversation with differing opinions: Were would the Cooper suspect have most likely built the briefcase bomb?  His workshop at his place of employment, or his apartment or motel room?

If it can be done without getting this list placed on a terrorist watch list, just exactly what is involved in building a bomb such as Cooper claimed he had?  The only thing I remember being described by the people who actually saw it is that there was a battery, what was probably road flares, and a lot of wires with two of them having an exposed end.

I would guess he had a electronic detonator, it could only be that if it was attached to a battery. connecting the final wire ran in a series would complete the circuit setting off the bomb. the problem I see is most dynamite is brown. it's mainly red in cartoons, and movies. there is red dynamite, but I don't think he had a real boomer...

The best test now would be showing Florence a photo of a stick of dynamite, and one road flare and see which she picks?
 

Robert99

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #31 on: December 08, 2014, 05:26:35 PM »
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For ever picture you can produce of someone in a machine shop wearing a clip-on tie, Tom Kaye can produce a picture of a machine shop employee wearing a fully knotted tie.  So the machine shop illustration is basically a wash.
Just a simple question that will hopefully inspire conversation with differing opinions: Were would the Cooper suspect have most likely built the briefcase bomb?  His workshop at his place of employment, or his apartment or motel room?

If it can be done without getting this list placed on a terrorist watch list, just exactly what is involved in building a bomb such as Cooper claimed he had?  The only thing I remember being described by the people who actually saw it is that there was a battery, what was probably road flares, and a lot of wires with two of them having an exposed end.

I would guess he had a electronic detonator, it could only be that if it was attached to a battery. connecting the final wire ran in a series would complete the circuit setting off the bomb. the problem I see is most dynamite is brown. it's mainly red in cartoons, and movies. there is red dynamite, but I don't think he had a real boomer...

The best test now would be showing Florence a photo of a stick of dynamite, and one road flare and see which she picks?

No one reported seeing anything that could have been a detonator or even a fuse.  But Tina did report that Cooper was very careless in how he handled those two wires with exposed ends.  Supposedly, if those wires had touched the "bomb" would have exploded.
 

Offline Shutter

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #32 on: December 08, 2014, 05:30:59 PM »
Most detonators go inside the dynamite. the two wires would complete the circuit as mentioned, and boom, if it was real.

The old school way was with the plunger box that sent an electrical charge to the dynamite.....
Perhaps the proper term would be blasting caps.

Here you can hardly see the blasting cap. I doubt anyone would have noticed if it had one.... (note the color of the dynamite)
It's actually a clock. they used the same print paper for dynamite, and wood dowels.
« Last Edit: December 08, 2014, 07:32:48 PM by shutter »
 

Offline Shutter

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #33 on: December 08, 2014, 05:40:59 PM »
The blasting caps need an electrical charge to explode, it's small, but it sets off the dynamite. you would wire the battery to the the charge just like hooking up your car battery, but you can't complete the circuit, so you use a switch, or break the circuit, or as many have seen they used a plunger that created electricity while pushing down on the plunger.

It's possible it was real if Cooper kept putting his hands inside the briefcase as Mitchell has claimed. he might have been worried about something going wrong?




A) Sawdust (or any other type of absorbent material) soaked in nitroglycerin.
B) Protective coating surrounding the explosive material.
C) Blasting cap.
D) Electrical cable (or fuse) connected to the blasting cap.
« Last Edit: December 08, 2014, 06:40:21 PM by shutter »
 

Robert99

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #34 on: December 09, 2014, 12:31:43 AM »
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The blasting caps need an electrical charge to explode, it's small, but it sets off the dynamite. you would wire the battery to the the charge just like hooking up your car battery, but you can't complete the circuit, so you use a switch, or break the circuit, or as many have seen they used a plunger that created electricity while pushing down on the plunger.

It's possible it was real if Cooper kept putting his hands inside the briefcase as Mitchell has claimed. he might have been worried about something going wrong?




A) Sawdust (or any other type of absorbent material) soaked in nitroglycerin.
B) Protective coating surrounding the explosive material.
C) Blasting cap.
D) Electrical cable (or fuse) connected to the blasting cap.

Shutter, is this the way it was done in 1971?
 

Offline Shutter

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #35 on: December 09, 2014, 06:40:00 AM »
Quote
Shutter, is this the way it was done in 1971?

I don't think much has changed over the years it's a pretty basic function allowing little room for improvement much like a "Black Cat" firecracker. "If it's not broke, don't fix it" ?

They have changed the way it's detonated by using detonator cord as a high speed fuse detonating at 4 miles a second for multiple charges.
 

Offline Parrotheadvol

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #36 on: December 09, 2014, 12:15:48 PM »
Back in the mid 90s I had a job for a few months with an explosive company and worked with dynamite. Based on that experience, I've always thought Coopers bomb was probably a fake.
 

georger

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #37 on: December 09, 2014, 03:54:18 PM »
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Back in the mid 90s I had a job for a few months with an explosive company and worked with dynamite. Based on that experience, I've always thought Coopers bomb was probably a fake.

Would a dog trained to detect explosives 'bark' at the presence of road flares?

Were explosives-dogs taken on board at Reno? (I believe they were). How did they react? (And why isn;t that in Geoff Gray's book?)

 
 

Offline Bruce A. Smith

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #38 on: December 09, 2014, 04:25:38 PM »
The dogs were busy eating the crew's dinner up in First Class, according to Rataczak.
 

georger

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #39 on: December 09, 2014, 04:51:08 PM »
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The dogs were busy eating the crew's dinner up in First Class, according to Rataczak.

That's what Ive been told too!

I'm guessing explosives dogs would 'signal' at the presence of road flares, but it's just a guess ...


 

Offline Shutter

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #40 on: December 09, 2014, 04:54:33 PM »
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Back in the mid 90s I had a job for a few months with an explosive company and worked with dynamite. Based on that experience, I've always thought Coopers bomb was probably a fake.

Would a dog trained to detect explosives 'bark' at the presence of road flares?

Were explosives-dogs taken on board at Reno? (I believe they were). How did they react? (And why isn;t that in Geoff Gray's book?)


I think the bomb would still have to be on the plane for the dogs to sniff one out. I don't know what's in road flares....
 

Robert99

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #41 on: December 09, 2014, 05:28:59 PM »
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Back in the mid 90s I had a job for a few months with an explosive company and worked with dynamite. Based on that experience, I've always thought Coopers bomb was probably a fake.

Would a dog trained to detect explosives 'bark' at the presence of road flares?

Were explosives-dogs taken on board at Reno? (I believe they were). How did they react? (And why isn;t that in Geoff Gray's book?)


I think the bomb would still have to be on the plane for the dogs to sniff one out. I don't know what's in road flares....

I don't know what is in road flares either, but whatever it was obviously took second place to the crew's lunch which was probably roast beef sandwiches (with ham being another good possibility).
 

Offline Bruce A. Smith

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #42 on: December 09, 2014, 09:42:01 PM »
I think Bill said it was tacos. I'll have to check my notes....
 

Robert99

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #43 on: December 09, 2014, 09:54:24 PM »
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I think Bill said it was tacos. I'll have to check my notes....

NWA serving tacos in Seattle in 1971?  Not likely.  But maybe there just happened to be a tacos franchise close to the NWA gates. ;)
 

Offline andrade1812

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Re: General Questions About The Case
« Reply #44 on: December 10, 2014, 11:38:23 PM »
Here's another round of questions. I accept Cooper was inspired by the failed Paul Cini hijacking and was able to engineer his heist in a relatively short period of time (11 days) using information he already had. So, he could easily put on a parachute harness before the Cini hijacking. He had to be familiar with air travel around SeaTac, and might have been a frequent flyer into the area. I also think he might have been a regular Northwest passenger. He would have flown an airline he was most comfortable with, as I believe he would have made many decisions based on personal comfort (which is why I believe he was wearing his typical wardrobe for the flight).

But what kind of piloting experience could he have had? When asked about flap settings, he said fifteen degrees. I'm not a pilot, so I had to look it up, flaps start creating more drag than lift at 10 degrees. Did Cooper guess at "15 degrees" because he knew this fact? Could he have learned the flap settings on a 727 without working at Boeing? Did he revert to knowledge from his own piloting lessons? Are there common contemporary private aircraft with similar flap settings? Same deal with having the landing gear down, he would have to have some knowledge of aeronautics before the Cini hijacking. What is the minimum amount of experience Cooper could have had based on these facts?