So, the bigger question is how much weight to give to Rataczak's s statements since he has said SO many conflicting statements on the flight path, ie: V-23, lights of Portland and Vancouver coming up, east of V-23, etc.

I'm new but quite interested. I read some people think Cooper could've died in the forests near Mount St. Helen, then 9 years later his bones and parachute got buried by the the volcano. Before I even look at this crazy idea, does anyone believe he could have landed there? If so, was it even searched? Who would know that?

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I'm new but quite interested. I read some people think Cooper could've died in the forests near Mount St. Helen, then 9 years later his bones and parachute got buried by the the volcano. Before I even look at this crazy idea, does anyone believe he could have landed there? If so, was it even searched? Who would know that?

The probability of Cooper landing anywhere near Mount St. Helens is zero.

Thus his bone or his shadow (memory) were unaffected by Mt St Helens. He probably watched it on tv somewhere 

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Bill never gave any indication that the 5,000 foot level was anywhere near the dropzone. it's much further south where they run into this problem..

I disagree. We've discussed this before, and it remains unresolved. But, Bill was quite specific. He said, he was over 5,000 foot terrain "when Cooper jumped" meaning 8:13 pm, or words to that effect. I understand that the higher elevations Flight 305 encountered over the traditional flight path was much further south - certainly near Reno - but that is not the impression I got from his statements, nor the interpretation that LMNO gave to his words because the graphic they created shows the higher elevation existing beneath 305 when Cooper jumped. However, they failed to extrapolate and interpret Bill's words, and thus give a location, such as MSH. I consider it a major goof by LMNO.

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Bill never gave any indication that the 5,000 foot level was anywhere near the dropzone. it's much further south where they run into this problem..

I disagree. We've discussed this before, and it remains unresolved. But, Bill was quite specific. He said, he was over 5,000 foot terrain "when Cooper jumped" meaning 8:13 pm, or words to that effect. I understand that the higher elevations Flight 305 encountered over the traditional flight path was much further south - certainly near Reno - but that is not the impression I got from his statements, nor the interpretation that LMNO gave to his words because the graphic they created shows the higher elevation existing beneath 305 when Cooper jumped. However, they failed to extrapolate and interpret Bill's words, and thus give a location, such as MSH. I consider it a major goof by LMNO.

"he wanted us to fly at 10,000 feet, we were really only about 5,000 feet above the ground, because that is where the mountain ranges were starting to come up, we were flying in the overcast, and we were getting ice on our wings, we were getting ice on the cockpit window"

again, he says nothing about the location. "the mountain ranges were coming up"

this again is true, but later down the flight path, this also includes the trouble with the icing. I believe that is because of the terrain changes.

If you accept the 8:13 time frame, then the path would have to be further east as Jerry Thomas, and Himmelsbach claim. over Green mountain area...

9:35 pm   " 11,000' also needed for adequate terrain clearance RBL-RNO"