Robert99 You say: "In my opinion, Carr is right and Cooper could not have had any useful information as to his location when he jumped. And, apparently, neither did the flight crew."
I say: "DB was smarter than you think, and he could use time as a navigation tool plus looking for the glow in the clouds above Vancouver and Portland. I have observed this glow before on night flights. V23 is about the only normal way to fly toward Mexico from Seattle, at least to Portland and DB knew that. So, his navigation was not that difficult and when facing forward when standing on the 727 Aft Airstairs, DB had the best view and could have not only seen the glow in the clouds above Vancouver but could see the ground lighting through the gaps in the clouds. DB had a better view than the pilots and could plan his jump very well. Having been a Smoke Jumper and not afraid to jump into trees made this an easy jump for him. The FBI must know who DB is and closed the case as a way to wash their hands of the whole caper. They must know that DB was CIA in Vietnam like all the other ex-Smoke Jumpers he knew and mentioned by Sheridan Peterson in his History Channel interview.
Bob Sailshaw
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
Commodore Sailshaw,
Cooper did not know the ground speed of the airliner, only knew its general direction of flight, and when (as you suggest) standing on the aft stairs looking forward into a 225 MPH wind with a wind chill factor of about 35 degrees below zero, I strongly suspect that he wasn't making the best mental calculations, if any at all. And if he could keep his eyes open, he probably had a spectacular view of absolutely nothing.
Under the existing conditions of the flight to Reno, I doubt if Cooper could have accurately predicted his location to within a circle with a 20 nautical mile radius even when in the Portland and Vancouver area. That leaves quite a bit to be desired.
I have also seen the glow of large cities through the clouds at night as well as ground lighting at night. With some specific exceptions on the ground lighting, these two items are essentially meaningless for navigational purposes.
Commodore Sailshaw, have you ever tried to enter the Straight of Juan de Fuca from the Pacific on an extremely foggy night using only dead reckoning and your wrist watch for navigation? Presumably, you have taken some Coast Guard courses on navigation. How did you do?
Your sentence, "The FBI must know who Cooper is and closed the case as a way to wash their hands of the whole caper.", has merit.