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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe D.B. Cooper case baffled investigators for decades. Now, scientists have a new theory.
By Amy B Wang January 16
@amybwang
....
In 1971, a well-dressed passenger hijacked a Northwest Orient flight, demanded $200,000 and later escaped by parachuting out of the back of the plane with the ransom money. .... More than four decades later, three amateur scientists think they may have found evidence that would narrow down Coopers identity to that of an aerospace engineer or a manager.
The scientists, working for a group called Citizen Sleuths, said they have been analyzing particles found on a clip-on necktie that Cooper left on his seat 18E before jumping out of the plane. ... To the naked eye, the piece of fabric was a nondescript black tie from J.C. Penney. But to the modern-day scientists, the tie was an incredibly fortunate piece of evidence in the investigation.
A tie is one of the only articles of clothing that isnt washed on a regular basis, reads a section on the Citizen Sleuths website devoted solely to the tie. It picks up dirt and grime just like any other piece of clothing, but that accumulation never truly gets reset in the washing machine. Each of those particles comes from something and somewhere and can tell a story if the proper instruments like electron microscopes are used.
{How the hunt for D.B. Cooper made an aging Vietnam veteran the target of TV sleuths}
Using a powerful electron microscope, the scientists say they have identified more than 100,000 particles of rare earth elements on the tie, including Cerium, Strontium sulfide and pure titanium, according to the Associated Press. Of those, titanium was the most notable. ... Titanium was a rare metal in 1971 and this makes it extremely unlikely it is a post-event contamination, Citizen Sleuths notes on its site, which lays out in painstaking detail all of the findings from the case. Its presence constrains Cooper to a limited number of managers or engineers in the titanium field that would wear ties to work.
Previously at DU:
FBI no longer investigating D.B. Cooper skyjacking case
fleur-de-lisa
(14,615 posts)"At the time, they noted, the element was used extensively by the military in aircraft and helicopters.
Scientists think he may have worked at Boeing, which at the time happened to be developing a Super Sonic Transport plane that used those elements, Tom Kaye, a lead researcher with Citizen Sleuths, told King 5 News.
The tie went with him into these manufacturing environments, for sure, so he was not one of the people running these [manufacturing machines], Kaye told the news station. He was either an engineer or a manager in one of the plants.
He added that the group was asking anyone from the public with information to contact researchers through the Citizen Sleuths website.
Someone may be able to look at those particles and say, Oh my gosh, I know what that means having those particles on the tie, Kaye told the news station."
safeinOhio
(32,527 posts)wash my blue jeans this year.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Lochloosa
(16,018 posts)madokie
(51,076 posts)I dry mine hanging up using the wire dealies that stretches and sorta puts a crease in them, other wise I'd have to buy larger sizes and I don't want to do that. My levi jean size today is 33 - 36 only two inches bigger in the waist than when I graduated high school. Of course I don't dry them in the dryer anymore . If I did that I'd be wearing 34 or 35 waist size
I like the sound of a 33 waist better. If I can't lie to myself who can I lie too?
Amishman
(5,540 posts)An aerospace engineer or manager vanishing would have attracted attention. The lack of an appropriate missing person case suggests Cooper survived and resumed his life.
(Or perhaps he just bought his cloths from a second hand shop and the mineral trace is just a decades old red herring.)