Will there be a Peterson Revival at the Auburn Theatre this year?

No.

The festivities will be held at the Seattle Yacht Club. Details to follow...

No 3 Bundolas:

Contrary to all the made up stuff from Blevins, there were no "3 Bundolas" offered Mucklow! It never happened

Mucklow is very specific in her interview. (Interview 11-30 Mucklow (Campbell files)). Quote:

When she received the bag containing the money on the ground) She took the bag containing the money back to seat 18-E where the hijacker was seated.

He opened the bag and inspected the contents which Mucklow said she observed was money packed in small packages with bank-type bands around each package. Having inspected the money in a cursory fashion the hijacker stated that ā€œit looks okā€ and then indicated to Mucklow that the crew could now let the passengers deplane. She stated that she called the cockpit on the intercom with this message and an announcement was made from the cockpit that passengers could disembark. 

Mucklow recalls that at this time while the passengers were unloading, in an attempt at being humorous, she suggested to the hijacker ā€˜that there was obviously a lot of money in the bag and could she have someā€™! The hijacker agreed with her suggestion and (he) reached in and took out one package of the money, denominations not recalled by Mucklow, and he handed the (single) bundle of money to her! Mucklow states that she laughed and gave the money back to the hijacker stating ā€˜she was not permitted to accept gratuitiesā€™, or words to that effect.

In a similar vein Mucklow recalls that at one time during the flight the hijacker had pulled some single bills from his pocket (change from a $20 he was given earlier for a drink he had purchased) and attempted to (give the bills back) to tip the girls on the crew. (He was told then they could not accept tips). So again, they declined in compliance with company policy.

So, the Ingram find of "$5800approx being called 3 Bundolas" has nothing to do with money offered Mucklow - she was only offered one "package" of money, by her own testimony.

I doubt if it requires a leap of faith to assume that the ONE bundle of money Cooper removed from the bag, in order to offer it to Tina, was then immediately replaced in the money bag or Tina would have noticed and stated otherwise.

And it is probably a safe assumption to say that the money bundles and money fragments arrived at Tina Bar as a result of the same natural event and at very nearly the same time (minutes, hours?) and not over an extended period of time (days?) as a result of multiple natural events.

The stairs....

Cooper stated in reference to the stairs being deployed prior to takeoff, and the pilot to activate them....

In a low tone, yes they can, but the cockpit can put it down after they are airborne..

Can we find out if the stair release was changed with the military aircraft. is it possible they converted it?


"Conceivably a 727 with a cargo track like system installed on its floor could carry multiple types of air to ground munitions, which could be rolled onto the main guide track that terminates at the rear air-stair opening after being programmed for release."

There are 2 control handles for the airstairs on a B727, one under a panel on the lower fuselage right beside the stair forward hinge point, and one at the top of the stairs behind a panel on the left side which can only be accessed when the rear cabin door is open. Because the cabin door can only be opened when the aircraft is unpressurized, this usually would prevent its actuation in flight. However, after the D B Cooper hijacking a device was added referred to as an anti-hijack vane that would swing over when the aircraft was in flight and prevent the door opening. To close the door either an electric hydraulic pump has to be turned on in the cockpit, or a hand pump beside the lower control operated while either handle is held to the close position. The door will free fall open without hydraulic pressure, but the support arms may have to be pushed to an overcenter position.

Source(s):
B727 AMM.
Endorsement course for B727

It's hard to say how many bundles were actually there since they had different amounts in each bundle. plus, we have extra serial numbers found in the mix with the Ingram's pot.

Plus, we can't clarify where in the Ingram bundles the remnants of rubber bands were spotted. That makes it impossible to establish what of the Ingram find were bundles, or remnants of bundles. The Ingrams didn't keep track of such details. We just know that somewhere in the total mass of decayed bills the Ingrams noted what looked like rubber band fragments which "turned to dust upon touching".

The estimate of 3 bundolas comes from the Carr statement there was approx $2000 per bundle, which later turned out to be wrong. Since $5800 was identified thats roughly 3 bundolas - later the bank employee said each bundle was something between $1000 to $2000 each, so there is no way to certify how many bundles the Ingram find represents !   

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Following this post I will be reducing my time devoted to the DB Cooper Social Media Vortez, in order to let the LOUD VOICES have more space and time in the Cooper social media dump. So "Cooper celebs" you have the crop circle - it's yours@!

Bye for now.

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The stairs....

Cooper stated in reference to the stairs being deployed prior to takeoff, and the pilot to activate them....

Quote

In a low tone, yes they can, but the cockpit can put it down after they are airborne..

Can we find out if the stair release was changed with the military aircraft. is it possible they converted it?

In all probability, the modified 727s had more powerful hydraulic pumps for both lowering and raising the stairs in flight.  Perhaps there was a switch on the flight engineer's panel to energize those pumps.  And the control panel for the stairs would be entirely different and perhaps have the ability to lock the stairs at intermediate points as they were lowered.  This could be the reason Cooper was not familiar with the civilian version of the stairs control panel and had trouble with it even after Tina explained it to him.  This matter has been discussed at some length elsewhere over the years.

I just realized something I overlooked. the stairs were removed during the drops...

Correct, I was only referring to the jumps/cargo drops in Asia...


Google has a nice aviation flight planner I wasn't aware of. some of you might find this tool worth looking at..you can also calculate with groundspeed.

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Do airports keep logs as far back as 71 to determine what planes were coming in and out, or is that too much data to hold?

If the airport had a control tower, the tower would probably be the one keeping such a record.  Those records would be useful to the airport administration for charging landing fees, etc., but I doubt the records would be available today.

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Do airports keep logs as far back as 71 to determine what planes were coming in and out, or is that too much data to hold?

If the airport had a control tower, the tower would probably be the one keeping such a record.  Those records would be useful to the airport administration for charging landing fees, etc., but I doubt the records would be available today.

It would be interesting to know the last 727 leaving Portland prior to Cooper boarding Northwest. he said he "didn't have a grudge against your airline, it was at the right place, and right time"

Could be possible to get a more accurate time of his movement prior to boarding, but I'm guessing the airport had 727's round the clock coming, and going?

Cooper was specifically looking for a 727 and he asked the NWA ticket agent if the incoming aircraft was a 727.  But in the 1971 era, the airlines had a joint publication that was published ever month or two that listed the airline flights to each city, the equipment used on the routes, the ticket price, the arrival and/or departure times, etc..  So Cooper could have easily checked that publication to determine that a 727 was scheduled for November 24th, 1971.

And my guess is that Cooper only asked the NWA agent about the 727 in order to confirm that his plan was going forward.  If the agent had told him that another aircraft had been substituted for the 727 that day, Cooper would probably have just flown to Seattle and gotten off the airplane.  Then he probably would have planned the hijacking for another day.

Also, remember that NWA had only started operating 727s between Portland and Seattle a couple of months earlier.