Last September 2015, Prior to taping with Tom Fuentes and Billy Jensen for the LMNO/History Channel, Mark Bennett and I met William Mitchell for lunch.

During our conversation, Mitchell pulls out a freezer bag and shows us his original boarding pass for flight 305. I asked him if I could take a picture and he allowed me to do so.

Here is a comparison of Mitchell's boarding pass and the one the FBI shows as Dan Cooper's.

Some say the tickets were signed by the ticket agent. Mitchell said he did not sign his name on his and that it is not in his writing. The writing on the two tickets looks like they were filled out by the same person. This information may be important.

Cool, we can look at similarities between the two now...nice pics 

Last September 2015, Prior to taping with Tom Fuentes and Billy Jensen for the LMNO/History Channel, Mark Bennett and I met William Mitchell for lunch.

During our conversation, Mitchell pulls out a freezer bag and shows us his original boarding pass for flight 305. I asked him if I could take a picture and he allowed me to do so.

Here is a comparison of Mitchell's boarding pass and the one the FBI shows as Dan Cooper's.

Some say the tickets were signed by the ticket agent. Mitchell said he did not sign his name on his and that it is not in his writing. The writing on the two tickets looks like they were filled out by the same person. This information may be important.

It looks like Mitchell got a student discount.  And I don't see a signature on either ticket.

I was doing a lot of flying in that time frame and never signed a ticket and don't remember ever seeing an agent sign a ticket.

Sometimes there could be additional paperwork related to a ticket or baggage and it might, or might not, have required a signature. 

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Last September 2015, Prior to taping with Tom Fuentes and Billy Jensen for the LMNO/History Channel, Mark Bennett and I met William Mitchell for lunch.

During our conversation, Mitchell pulls out a freezer bag and shows us his original boarding pass for flight 305. I asked him if I could take a picture and he allowed me to do so.

Here is a comparison of Mitchell's boarding pass and the one the FBI shows as Dan Cooper's.

Some say the tickets were signed by the ticket agent. Mitchell said he did not sign his name on his and that it is not in his writing. The writing on the two tickets looks like they were filled out by the same person. This information may be important.

It looks like Mitchell got a student discount.  And I don't see a signature on either ticket.

I was doing a lot of flying in that time frame and never signed a ticket and don't remember ever seeing an agent sign a ticket.

Sometimes there could be additional paperwork related to a ticket or baggage and it might, or might not, have required a signature.

OK...I misrepresented when I implied they "signed" the tickets. A better representation of my point is: 

The airline and it's agents filled out the ticket with the names of each passenger. According to Bill Mitchell, He DID NOT fill out his boarding pass. It was filled out at the airport, at the ticket counter by an airline employee. There is, and will be, continuing speculation that the passengers filled out their boarding passes and the writing on the "Cooper" boarding pass is Dan Cooper's handwriting.

Really cool to see a picture of Mitchell's ticket. Thanks for sharing that. I was wondering why he was only charged $13 when Cooper was charged $20 but then a previous poster suggested a student discount. Makes sense.

Regarding the debate of who actually wrote "Dan Cooper" on the ticket  ----- wouldn't this have been a pretty obvious question to ask the ticket agent at the time of the investigation? It seems like one of the first things they would ask him (Hal Williams I believe his name was) would be "Okay so did you write the name on the ticket or did you have the passenger write it himself?"  The fact that this is still unknown seems odd.

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Last September 2015, Prior to taping with Tom Fuentes and Billy Jensen for the LMNO/History Channel, Mark Bennett and I met William Mitchell for lunch.

During our conversation, Mitchell pulls out a freezer bag and shows us his original boarding pass for flight 305. I asked him if I could take a picture and he allowed me to do so.

Here is a comparison of Mitchell's boarding pass and the one the FBI shows as Dan Cooper's.

Some say the tickets were signed by the ticket agent. Mitchell said he did not sign his name on his and that it is not in his writing. The writing on the two tickets looks like they were filled out by the same person. This information may be important.

It looks like Mitchell got a student discount.  And I don't see a signature on either ticket.

I was doing a lot of flying in that time frame and never signed a ticket and don't remember ever seeing an agent sign a ticket.

Sometimes there could be additional paperwork related to a ticket or baggage and it might, or might not, have required a signature.

OK...I misrepresented when I implied they "signed" the tickets. A better representation of my point is: 

The airline and it's agents filled out the ticket with the names of each passenger. According to Bill Mitchell, He DID NOT fill out his boarding pass. It was filled out at the airport, at the ticket counter by an airline employee. There is, and will be, continuing speculation that the passengers filled out their boarding passes and the writing on the "Cooper" boarding pass is Dan Cooper's handwriting.

In my experience, the ticket counter agents did all the writing on the ticket - everything.

The Ticket

The signing/not signing of the plane ticket is becoming a major issue, especially with Tom Colbert and Company. What is our current understanding? I thought that Dennis Lysne said he filled out Dan Cooper's ticket. True? No?

I am very confused.

I thought that Larry Carr confirmed on the DZ that Dan Cooper didn't fill out his ticket, and that none of the writing is the skyjacker's. Am I remembering this correctly?

Of course, supporting this aspect, Vicki has clearly stated that Bill Mitchell told her that he didn't fill-out his ticket at all, and comparing the Dan Cooper ticket with the Bill Mitchell ticket we see hand-writing similarities, suggesting one person filled out both tickets.

The Ticket

The signing/not signing of the plane ticket is becoming a major issue, especially with Tom Colbert and Company. What is our current understanding? I thought that Dennis Lysne said he filled out Dan Cooper's ticket. True? No?

I am very confused.

I thought that Larry Carr confirmed on the DZ that Dan Cooper didn't fill out his ticket, and that none of the writing is the skyjacker's. Am I remembering this correctly?

Of course, supporting this aspect, Vicki has clearly stated that Bill Mitchell told her that he didn't fill-out his ticket at all, and comparing the Dan Cooper ticket with the Bill Mitchell ticket we see hand-writing similarities, suggesting one person filled out both tickets.

Bruce and others, please pay attention and read the following:

1.  Bill Mitchell's statement, online at WSHM, states that he got a ride (in an automobile) from Eugene to Portland from a friend on the day of the hijacking.  Upon arriving at the Portland airport Mitchell did not have a ticket, so he went looking for the next flight to Seattle and discovered it was on Northwest.  He then bought a ticket from the agent [who undoubtedly was Dennis Lysne] who filled out the appropriate information including Mitchell's name, and collected the fare for Mitchell's reduced student rate. Mitchell then went to a pay phone where he called his parents in Seattle and told them the flight he would be on and its arrival time.  Mitchell did not need to fill out or sign anything.

2.  On pages 34 and 35 of Himmelsbach's book, the FBI's contact with ticket agent Dennis Lysne is discussed.  Since Cooper was standing at the ticket counter, Lysne didn't need to bother with any contact information.  Lysne only needed a name and Cooper provided one.  Although it is not specifically so stated, Lysne would be the one to enter the name on the ticket.

3.  On page 1 of Tosaw's book, the following quote, starting at line 11 from the top:

          "The agent [who is not named but would be Dennis Lysne] began filling in the ticket and routinely asked the man his name.  He replied: 'Dan Cooper.'"  Again, Lysne would be the one who wrote the name, and all the other information, on the ticket.

What all of the above means is that Dennis Lysne was the NWA ticket agent who sold the tickets to Mitchell and Cooper.  And Lysne did all the writing on the tickets.  So, it is to be expected that the writing on the tickets matched.  NWA probably only had one ticket counter at Portland since they only had a limited number of flights through there.

Larry Carr and Vicki got it right!  That's the way the airline system worked in the 1971 time frame.  There is no issue or problem here.  So don't try to fabricate one.