The article seems to explain why the stairway fabric was missing. Seems like it ripped off? Maybe they ripped off the 2nd piece to match. They apparently had flaps and gear down, to fly at 140 knots. They paid for two loads with the 727 at $65,000.
So wonder if they did two jumps?

Note Donnelly walked the stairs alone here, apparently, to spot.

'Donnelly said that one of the hairiest moments of filming came when he stepped down the stairway to spot the 727.
The plane was over Yosemite Park, some 20 miles from their target area.

"Suddenly, a 10-foot section of canvas which had been stretched across the side of the stairway came loose, whipping around and taking my legs out from under me," he said. "Fortunately, Ray grabbed my hand and pulled me back in. Otherwise I would have made an illegal jump into Yosemite. And it would have taken days to get out of there"

I just rented the movie on youtube.
the jump sequence is at the beginning.

interestingly they have a chase plane filming from the side, and air stairs are open (halfway) with no one on them, but only one of the fabric stair sides is missing.

So the Parachutist story is correct. They lost one side while filming..and you can see just a little piece left on the 2nd side (not shown in the prior pics)

They must have made two jumps, because there is no videographer jumping first in this video sequence.

The jumper is very stable on the back flip. No turbulence or chaotic behavior or tumbling.

I should make a snip of the video of the jump and put it on youtube.

The stairs moved up after the jump, but they did not slam shut like Robert99 said they would.
I think Robert99's claim that the stairs always slam shut on jumping off the stairs, has been disproven.



the video shows Cooper backing down the stairs. I attached some stills

Remember this is a real reenactment. It is not some artificial thing. Real jumper, real 727. 140 knots, wheels and flaps down.

looking at the jumper,
I'm wondering if the FBI test used a load that was too heavy

so maybe their heavy load opened the stairs more than a real jumper like in this movie

that led to a "more compressed" spring effect when the load was released.

In any case, the movie clearly shows that the stairs don't always slam shut when a human jumper jumps.

Remember: the primary data from the FBI was not a human jumper, but a simulated load.


So saying that the FBI test definitely shows when Cooper jumped because of pressure bumps, is really just a lie.

I wondered the same thing. But the Test did prove a pressure spike occurs.

thanks shutter. that's very good!

I wasn't up to date on screen capturing a video from youtube, but I managed to put something up on youtube also of the jump sequence.
I didn't include sound, but that sound was probably all added in anyhow...

I called it "N690WA jump sequence" because that was the right registration number on the plane
My snippet is probably a bit longer. But you can see the aft stair doesn't snap up shut. It goes up about half way or so.



more detail about the jump:

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i N690WA, did it belong  to Fleming International at the time of the jump?
(movie release was 1981)

N690WA   Tokyomenka America   31.12.79   Left Fleet
N690WA   Fleming International   23.10.81   Left Fleet

According to wikipedia
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Aircraft in the film
The Boeing 727-173C (c/n 19504-527, N690WA) leased from World Airways, played the part of the Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 featured in the sky hijacking. Painted in the fictitious "Northern Pacific" company livery, it appeared in the first scene, being photographed by pilot Clay Lacy from his Learjet. Four professional parachutists performed the parachute jump from the rear exit stair of the Boeing 727.[


So the chase plane that filmed the jump was a Learjet. and the plane was a Boeing 727-173C

Okay, let's talk about the above posts.

Shutter says the airliner was doing 150 Knots in the movie clip.  Was that Indicated Airspeed, True Airspeed, or what?  What was the altitude, the outside temperature at that altitude, and what was the local sea-level barometric pressure?

The hijacked airliner was flying at 170 Knots Indicated Airspeed which was about 194 Knots True Airspeed (or about 225 MPH) when corrected for the altitude, sea-level pressure, and ambient temperature at that altitude.

The movie jump was planned by people who knew what they were doing and they prepared the aircraft accordingly.  Except they should have also removed the modesty panels.

In the movie, it looks like the stairs have hydraulic or pneumatic reactions following the jump.  So my guess is that hydraulic power was being applied to the stairs during the jump by someone who knew how to operate the stairs and that they were basically in a down but not locked configuration.  In the Cooper jump and FBI tests, the stairs were in free fall.

The movie Boeing 727-173C is apparently an all-cargo aircraft or a convertible one that can be rapidly configured to carry either all passengers or all cargo or a combination of cabin cargo plus some passengers.  The "c/n 19504-527" indicates that the 19504 was the Boeing production number and my guess is that the 527 may mean that it was the 527th 727 produced or it may just mean a specific configuration that was specified by the original buyer.

But to make a long story short, I do not see anything that would change my original comments about the stairs and the FBI tests.  That is, there was just one pressure bump and that was when Cooper jumped.     

Okay, let's talk about the above posts.

Shutter says the airliner was doing 150 Knots in the movie clip.  Was that Indicated Airspeed, True Airspeed, or what?  What was the altitude, the outside temperature at that altitude, and what was the local sea-level barometric pressure?

The hijacked airliner was flying at 170 Knots Indicated Airspeed which was about 194 Knots True Airspeed (or about 225 MPH) when corrected for the altitude, sea-level pressure, and ambient temperature at that altitude.

The movie jump was planned by people who knew what they were doing and they prepared the aircraft accordingly.  Except they should have also removed the modesty panels.

In the movie, it looks like the stairs have hydraulic or pneumatic reactions following the jump.  So my guess is that hydraulic power was being applied to the stairs during the jump by someone who knew how to operate the stairs and that they were basically in a down but not locked configuration.  In the Cooper jump and FBI tests, the stairs were in free fall.

The movie Boeing 727-173C is apparently an all-cargo aircraft or a convertible one that can be rapidly configured to carry either all passengers or all cargo or a combination of cabin cargo plus some passengers.  The "c/n 19504-527" indicates that the 19504 was the Boeing production number and my guess is that the 527 may mean that it was the 527th 727 produced or it may just mean a specific configuration that was specified by the original buyer.

But to make a long story short, I do not see anything that would change my original comments about the stairs and the FBI tests.  That is, there was just one pressure bump and that was when Cooper jumped.   

Fair enough. You like the FBI test.
I dunno why you like it so much. It doesn't seem conclusive to me.

I also don't know why you say there was only one  pressure bump. There's nothing you can reliably show or say about that.

the removal of the skirting was probably done because you wouldn't see the jumper very well in the shot.

Just a detail.
There were apparently 2 flights (2 loads) according to the Parachutist article.
The fabric on one handrail tore off while spotting over Yosemite (20 mi from DZ) as described in article.

On the long opening sequence, there is no fabric on one rail, and some fabric (most gone) flapping on the second rail.
In the long sequence, once he jumps, you can tell it shifts to the point of view of the videographer who jumped before, backwards (as shown in the photo) ...that's the jump that has no fabric on either rail.

So i'm guessing they did one jump for the long sequence filmed from the lear jet.

then another jump (same day? or different day) with the videographer jumping off backwards first, to get the POV show we have the still of.

There's no shot in the movie sequence that shows absolutely no fabric left. that's only in the Parachutist article pic.

my guess is they lost fabric on the first jump, flew back, picked up jumpers (maybe 2nd day) and removed the ragged fabric that was remaining, so that it was clean.

I don't think "no fabric" was planned. They probably had to pay for the damage they caused. ($60,000 cost per flight per the article..maybe they didn't get charged)

Surprisingly, they repainted the plane with the NPA livery just for the shot.

wikipedia has a good history of the movie. No one involved like the result, it had got bumped around to different director/script writer.