The mystery is still unsolved. That torn and tangled parachute found a month ago near Amboy, Washington, was not used by famous airliner hijacker D.B. Cooper, according to the person who sold Cooper two chutes.
Earl Cossey, who examined the chute for the FBI on Friday said it was probably made around 1945.
Cossey, who sold parachutes at a skydiving operation in Issaquah in the 1970s, had provided the chutes Cooper used. He told The Columbian of Vancouver that the newly found chute "absolutely, for sure" could not have been one of the four that he provided.
"The D.B. Cooper parachute was made of nylon," he said. "This 1945 parachute was made of silk."
The FBI, which at first responded Tuesday by saying the matter remained under investigation, late Tuesday afternoon confirmed that there was no connection between the parachute and Cooper.
Laura Laughlin, special agent in charge of the FBI's Seattle division, said the agency came to its conclusion after speaking with parachute experts and digging where children found the parachute early last month.
A man who had given his name as Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in November 1971, claiming he had a bomb. After the plane landed at Seattle, he released the passengers in exchange for 200,000 U.S. dollars and four parachutes and asked to be flown to Mexico. He then bailed out of the jet as it flew somewhere near the Oregon line.
Some of the money given to him was found in 1980 along the Columbia River, but the fate of Cooper remains unknown. Many think he could not have survived the jump.
Source:Xinhua
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