Nicky - Over on dropzone the other day Flyjack posted an old article from Parachutist magazine about the stunt jumps from the Treat Williams movie. That article mentions six people who worked on that. As you can see from my response over there, of those six people, I was acquainted with four of them. Of those four, three of them have passed away. The fourth guy, Ray Cottingham, I believe is still around, but I haven't seen him in a few years. I don't do any social media, so I wouldn't know his facebook or anything. I think he lived in the Las Vegas area, but he was a semi-regular at Elsinore for many years. He would probably remember things about the plane/stair issues, and he might be able to direct you to the other two guys or possibly the pilots. If you can't find him on facebook, perhaps ask Daniella in the office at Elsinore. She probably won't give you his contact, but she might forward yours to him.

Niholas, Yes I did know and jump with Lyle Cameron but most contacts were with photos and articles for Skydiver magazine. Yes I was both a cameraman and stunt jumper for the DB Cooper film.  Kevin Donnelly was the 2nd unit director and a stunt jumper.  He did the tree landing stunt. Ray

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Nicky - Over on dropzone the other day Flyjack posted an old article from Parachutist magazine about the stunt jumps from the Treat Williams movie. That article mentions six people who worked on that. As you can see from my response over there, of those six people, I was acquainted with four of them. Of those four, three of them have passed away. The fourth guy, Ray Cottingham, I believe is still around, but I haven't seen him in a few years. I don't do any social media, so I wouldn't know his facebook or anything. I think he lived in the Las Vegas area, but he was a semi-regular at Elsinore for many years. He would probably remember things about the plane/stair issues, and he might be able to direct you to the other two guys or possibly the pilots. If you can't find him on facebook, perhaps ask Daniella in the office at Elsinore. She probably won't give you his contact, but she might forward yours to him.

I received a response to my message into Ray C today.

Quote

Niholas, Yes I did know and jump with Lyle Cameron but most contacts were with photos and articles for Skydiver magazine. Yes I was both a cameraman and stunt jumper for the DB Cooper film.  Kevin Donnelly was the 2nd unit director and a stunt jumper.  He did the tree landing stunt. Ray

Is there anything specific you’d like me to ask Ray regarding the performance of the 727 aft stairs for the movie stunt?

I'm about done with my findings regarding the tie particles, and I hope to share them shortly.

Regarding radioactivity and the medical field, I have found that a conspicuous number of the elements and compounds on the tie are related to cancer drugs and cancer treatments such as chemo and radiation therapy. It suggests Cooper might have been treated for cancer in the time prior to the hijacking.

Perhaps he pulled a Walter White?

I'm generalizing here.  The air stairs deal seems to fall into two camps here.  One is a group that thinks Cooper knew a lot about the stairs, particularly from secret info (CIA, Vietnam, Boeing etc).  The other group thinks he only knew a little bit.

I'm in the group that thinks he knew some, but not a lot.  One theory is that he could have simply flown on a 727 before and saw the flight attendants operate the stairs before taking off, then made an assumption that the stairs could be used in flight.  He seemed like he knew what he was doing at first, but then not so much.  Kind of like a guy seeing a home improvement video and thinking he can remodel his house.  It's harder than it looks.  He may have even talked to pilots or ground crew, we just don't know.  There are 302s that have suspects at Elsinore asking about jumping, and one on a passenger plane in California (Burbank) claiming to be doing movie research.

I could argue both sides of this.  Cooper did ask for the plane to fly low and slow, so that could indicate that he knew the stairs would be more likely to deploy if the plane was depressurized.  If he was an aircrew member in the military, he may have seen planes fly with ladders down, doors open, with guys hanging out, etc.

The other side of me says that if he had never seen the 727 do this, then he was taking a huge risk that the stairs could cause air flow issues, or even make the plane unflyable.  Or if they took off with the stairs down, do too much damage to the plane.  Very risky on his part.

I hope we find out someday.

I'm generalizing here.  The air stairs deal seems to fall into two camps here.  One is a group that thinks Cooper knew a lot about the stairs, particularly from secret info (CIA, Vietnam, Boeing etc).  The other group thinks he only knew a little bit.

I'm in the group that thinks he knew some, but not a lot.  One theory is that he could have simply flown on a 727 before and saw the flight attendants operate the stairs before taking off, then made an assumption that the stairs could be used in flight.  He seemed like he knew what he was doing at first, but then not so much.  Kind of like a guy seeing a home improvement video and thinking he can remodel his house.  It's harder than it looks.  He may have even talked to pilots or ground crew, we just don't know.  There are 302s that have suspects at Elsinore asking about jumping, and one on a passenger plane in California (Burbank) claiming to be doing movie research.

I could argue both sides of this.  Cooper did ask for the plane to fly low and slow, so that could indicate that he knew the stairs would be more likely to deploy if the plane was depressurized.  If he was an aircrew member in the military, he may have seen planes fly with ladders down, doors open, with guys hanging out, etc.

The other side of me says that if he had never seen the 727 do this, then he was taking a huge risk that the stairs could cause air flow issues, or even make the plane unflyable.  Or if they took off with the stairs down, do too much damage to the plane.  Very risky on his part.

I hope we find out someday.