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I don't believe Cooper himself wrote those letters - if all he wanted was to get away with $200,000, better to let the feds think him dead. More likely a random, mentally ill person wrote them, and moreover (as several letters do look like they have a common source) that person was nomadic. TK being or even meeting Cooper seems like a long shot, but I could totally see him admiring Cooper's "beating the system" and writing the letters to torment the cops.

This is a good point.  We've seen posts elsewhere from "someone" who believes Cooper buried the money at Tina Bar after the John Doe charge in 1976 so the FBI would think he was dead.  That would be absolutely the opposite Cooper would be expected to do.  By that time there was probably only one agent assigned to the case, and only dealing with evidence as it came in.  Dropping money on the beach to be found would stir up a whole bunch of new activity with several agents and attract lots more attention.  Not smart.

Tena Bar, the most I make of it is the money got there somehow, wound up in the condition it did somehow, and nothing else wound up there. Cooper burying it briefly after the jump and leaving some behind by accident - may be possible, and Tina Bar has the advantage of being a marked spot in the area, not just a random clump of trees in the woods that would be hard to find again later; McCoy did hide his loot in a culvert for intended later retrieval. The more I think about it, the weirder it is that of all the places the money could have wound up in that wilderness and along that route, it wound up in a place that is publicly marked, easy to find. However, Cooper planting some years later to appear dead when they pretty much already thought he was dead and, as you say, had other fish to fry, would be poking a hornet's nest for no reason. That would be among the LEAST likely explanations, logically, of how the money wound up at TB. We don't know how the guy thought, really, so none of the explanations are impossible, right up to "Cooper taunted bear with loot, bear ate Cooper, used bills as toilet paper, some of it stuck to his butt and only dropped off at Tina Bar." Any stands I take on this case are not at TB, lol. 

Is there a detailed account of the Hahneman hijacking? I have the wikipedia article, but is there anything else? Perhaps a detailed magazine article somewhere?

IMHO, it's no different than McCoy with similarities. I tried to discuss it with fly but was accused of trying to discredit him? sadly, I put him in a different category now. it's getting harder and harder to discuss the case.

What airlines flew from PDX to SEA in 1971? Did they all use 727's?

NWO
Pan Am
United

Eastern? Continental?

I think I can say that a 727 on the PDX to SEA leg was not the usual aircraft.  737s and DC-9 are more likely to have been the most common jet aircraft and there were probably still some propeller aircraft on the leg.

Back to basics -

Parachute Assoc expert testifies about Cooper's jump.

Part II ...

What airlines flew from PDX to SEA in 1971? Did they all use 727's?

NWO
Pan Am
United

Eastern? Continental?

I lived in Portland in 1971 and most of my life. My Ex wife worked for Hughes Air West and they flew mostly 727’s back then. I know they flew out of Portland and most of the West. I got married in Reno and flew Hughes Air West.

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What airlines flew from PDX to SEA in 1971? Did they all use 727's?

NWO
Pan Am
United

Eastern? Continental?

I lived in Portland in 1971 and most of my life. My Ex wife worked for Hughes Air West and they flew mostly 727’s back then. I know they flew out of Portland and most of the West. I got married in Reno and flew Hughes Air West.

The question was related to the Portland to Seattle route.  It is unlikely that Hughes Air West, or any other airline, had more than minimal service on that route using 727s.  Economics is the reasons.  The hijacked airliner probably had a capacity of 100+ passengers but only 30+ passengers were on board which is a load factor of 30+ percent and no airliner is going to make a profit with 727s on that segment with that load factor.  And note that this was a busy Thanksgiving travel day.

The Hughes Air West, NWA, and others who flew 727s into or out of Portland probably had destinations such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Minneapolis, or other routes that were lengthy enough and had enough passenger traffic to earn a profit.

Back to basics -

Parachute Assoc expert testifies about Cooper's jump.

Part II below next post...

This is fantastic stuff, georger, and thank you. It really eliminates most of the question of whether an experienced jumper could have made the jump wearing loafers and in those conditions, into that terrain. Was particularly surprised when the jumper said they could have survived a jump into water.