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When informed of the hijacker's demands for parachutes, the NWA personnel at SEATAC contacted someone they knew at Boeing Field and someone at Boeing Field contacted Hayden.  Hayden sent both of his backpacks to Boeing Field by taxi and the people at Boeing Field got them to NWA at SEATAC either by taxi or personal car.

That's not what Norman Hayden told me. You have additional sources to corroborate this scenario?

It's interesting how we all have to pick and choose what we believe is accurate from various files.
For example, I could show (like I posted) that the FBI knew it had a NB6 in it's basement all along, and that it was impossible for Cooper to jump with the NB6 because they had it. Yet they promoted that story (with Cossey who was in on the conspiracy), to hide the fact that Cooper was an FBI agent testing the response to hijackings.

Here is some clarification:

If DBC had received chutes from McChord, they almost certainly would have been BA series emergency rigs - probably BA-18 or BA-22.

The BA-18 came into service in 1958, and the BA-22 came into use in 1968. They are virtually identical except for the ripcord knob. They were issued to every non-jumping jumpmaster, onboard safety personnel, and crew of various jets including the B-66 light bomber and F-101 and 105 fighters. The BA utilized a standard military C9 canopy.

They worked on a 1 to 13 second automatic deployment after pulling the “red arming cable knob”. They were not triggered by altitude. Jumpers could also override the time delay by pulling a T-shaped “blast handle”. There was also a “zero-delay lanyard” that was to be used at altitudes of less than 8000 feet.

I have attached a picture of a BA series rig below. Note the sage green color.

All that said, I don’t think DBC was given USAF chutes. However, RH said he specifically requested chutes from McChord. The 302s make it clear he expected the chutes to be from McChord. Nevertheless, multiple media reports at the time state that Cooper was offered USAF chutes and rejected them. An article from the New York Times states:

“Two military models were found at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma and rushed to the Seattle field. When the hijacker learned that military models were being supplied, he demanded that sport models be made available instead. These were found at a nearby airfield used by sky divers.”

So, is Himms wrong? Is the NYT’s mistaken? Are the 302s inaccurate?

My point is that in addition to asking what chutes Cooper used, we should also be asking what chutes he wanted and expected, and why?

the picture chaucer included is from this page
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good deal of info there from folks on all the issues/history of those type rigs

My reading is that they had a zero-delay lanyard for low-altitude ejections?

interestingly, these rigs had PLD, Personnel Lowering Devices, so you could descend out of trees. (webbing with something like a rappel device, to slide down the webbing. see this post at dropzone.com
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I haven't read through that page yet, but it's interesting to see blast handles on those rigs. They were used for a while on some sport rigs for reserve ripcord handles, but they caused problems. They mounted / clipped on to the end of the ripcord housing. If you didn't pull it straight, that is if there was any angle to the the pull, they sometimes didn't want to come off of the housing, and caused a hard pull. That resulted in a number of 'no-pull' fatalities (after cutting away from a malfunctioned main), and they were ultimately banned for sport use. I have one in my closet somewhere, I was going to have it made into a stickshift knob for my car, but I never did.

I haven't read through that page yet, but it's interesting to see blast handles on those rigs. They were used for a while on some sport rigs for reserve ripcord handles, but they caused problems. They mounted / clipped on to the end of the ripcord housing. If you didn't pull it straight, that is if there was any angle to the the pull, they sometimes didn't want to come off of the housing, and caused a hard pull. That resulted in a number of 'no-pull' fatalities (after cutting away from a malfunctioned main), and they were ultimately banned for sport use. I have one in my closet somewhere, I was going to have it made into a stickshift knob for my car, but I never did.

As layman with no expertise in parachutes, my impression of these BA rigs is that they were very complicated with a lot of moving parts. It wasn’t a simple “pull and deploy” mechanism.

Bruce, you need to read your interview with Hayden again and the other online information about how the backpacks got from Hayden to SEATAC.  This has been discussed at length for several years both on this site and on DZ.

Yes, I do recall vaguely discussing this before.

I guess it comes down to whom do you trust? Hayden or the FBI agents who filled out the 302s and Summary Reports.

As for the 302s, I find it interesting that one of the recent ones - September ? - talked about FBI agents in Seattle calling two individuals in the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day, Nov 25, to talk about the parachutes. The names were redacted but I assume they were Normans and his buddy Barry Halsted from Pacific Aviation.

I find that remarkable that agents were calling people at 1 and 2 am on the night of the skyjacking. Even Himms says he went to bed by 2 am. I also found it disconcerting that Norman AND Barry would both forget to tell me about the phone calls, or lied about it. Or the FBI agents called two other fellows, or they lied about it, too. Maybe everyone is lying. Imagine that.

Good info on gear both old and new.

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377,

Any insight into the McChord question? If Cooper expected USAF equipment but was given Navy equipment and supposedly had no problem putting it on, does that mean he was experienced in USAF rigs AND USN rigs? Or that he didn’t know the difference and didn’t care?

Secondly, the USAF didn’t use reserve chutes except for static line jumps. Static line would have been impossible for DBC. So if he was expected USAF gear, why ask for “two back and two front”? This would indicates a lack of knowledge on the type of chutes he was getting, wouldn’t it?

“ Static line would have been impossible for DBC.”

Not sure I agree with this. Difficult but not impossible. I believe I could have figured out how to do my DC 9 jet jump with a static line rig. Just tie or clip the end of the static line to something very solid. Moot point though. Cooper didn’t have static line rigs.

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