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Compelling New Suspect For DB Cooper Skyjacking Found By Army Data Analyst (oregonlive.com)
A U.S. Army officer with a security clearance and a "solid professional reputation" believes he's solved the infamous D.B. Cooper skyjacking case -- naming two now-dead men in New Jersey who have never before been suspected, "possibly breaking wide open the only unsolved skyjacking case in U.S. history," according to the Oregonian.
The data analyst started his research because, simply enough, he had stumbled upon an obscure old book called "D.B. Cooper: What Really Happened," by the late author Max Gunther. Gunther wrote that he was contacted in 1972 by a man who claimed to be the skyjacker... Using the name "Dan LeClair" and various details from the book, as well as information from the FBI's D.B. Cooper case files that have become public in recent years, Anonymous tracked the bread crumbs to a very real man named Dan Clair, a World War II Army veteran who died in 1990... Continuing his research, our anonymous Army officer eventually determined that Clair probably was not D.B. Cooper. More likely the skyjacker was a friend and co-worker of Clair's, a native New Jerseyan by the name of William J. Smith, who died in January of this year at age 89... Clair and Smith worked together at Penn Central Transportation Co. and one of its predecessors. For a while, they were both "yardies" at the Oak Island rail yard in Newark. It appears they bonded in the 1960s as Penn Central struggled to adapt to a changing economy.
The data analyst says the two men's military backgrounds -- Smith served in the Navy -- and long experience in the railroad business would have made it possible for either of them to successfully parachute from a low-flying jetliner, find railroad tracks once they were on the ground, and hop a freight train back to the East Coast. Poring over a 1971 railroad atlas, the hijacked plane's flight path and the skyjacker's likely jump zone, he determined that no matter where D.B. Cooper landed, he would have been no more than 5-to-7 miles from tracks. "I believe he would have been able to see Interstate 5 from the air," he says, adding that one rail line ran parallel to the highway... He believes Smith and Clair may have been in on the skyjacking together. He notes that Clair, who spent his career in relatively low-level jobs, retired in 1973 when he was just 54 years old.
Several incriminating coincidences were noted by an article this week in the Oregonian -- including a scar on Smith's hand, his visit to a skydiving facility in 1971, and Smith's strong resemblance to the police artist's sketches. Even the chemicals found on Cooper's clip-on tie in 2017 would be consistent with his job as the manager of a railyard. "[I]n my professional opinion, there are too many connections to be simply a coincidence," the data analyst told the FBI, while telling the Oregonian he believes the pair were "mad at the corporate establishment" in America and determined to do something about it.
"If I was on that plane, I wouldn't have thought he was a hero," he says. "But after the fact, I might think, 'OK, this took balls,' especially if I knew he was an ordinary guy, a working man worried about his pension going away. That he wasn't some arch-criminal. I would want to talk to that guy.... he is a kind of folk hero."
The data analyst says the two men's military backgrounds -- Smith served in the Navy -- and long experience in the railroad business would have made it possible for either of them to successfully parachute from a low-flying jetliner, find railroad tracks once they were on the ground, and hop a freight train back to the East Coast. Poring over a 1971 railroad atlas, the hijacked plane's flight path and the skyjacker's likely jump zone, he determined that no matter where D.B. Cooper landed, he would have been no more than 5-to-7 miles from tracks. "I believe he would have been able to see Interstate 5 from the air," he says, adding that one rail line ran parallel to the highway... He believes Smith and Clair may have been in on the skyjacking together. He notes that Clair, who spent his career in relatively low-level jobs, retired in 1973 when he was just 54 years old.
Several incriminating coincidences were noted by an article this week in the Oregonian -- including a scar on Smith's hand, his visit to a skydiving facility in 1971, and Smith's strong resemblance to the police artist's sketches. Even the chemicals found on Cooper's clip-on tie in 2017 would be consistent with his job as the manager of a railyard. "[I]n my professional opinion, there are too many connections to be simply a coincidence," the data analyst told the FBI, while telling the Oregonian he believes the pair were "mad at the corporate establishment" in America and determined to do something about it.
"If I was on that plane, I wouldn't have thought he was a hero," he says. "But after the fact, I might think, 'OK, this took balls,' especially if I knew he was an ordinary guy, a working man worried about his pension going away. That he wasn't some arch-criminal. I would want to talk to that guy.... he is a kind of folk hero."
It was Big Foot.
rewriting history since 2109
He's already been outed as Santoshi but his real alias is DB cooper. He used all the money on plastic surgery and height change operations. Now he's undermining cities.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Surely you woosh, Mr Q?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
There were 209 million people in the US in 1972. Finding one of them who circumstantially could conceivably within the realm of possibility have known someone who circumstantially could conceivably have been D.B. Cooper is not a hard thing to do. There needs to be direct evidence connecting them for this to be newsworthy. Also, saying that the rare earth metals ending up on his tie because he was a rail yard manager is a huge stretch. In that case, assuming he left his office and went frolicking around inside of rail cars, he might have had one kind of rare earth metal. However the tie had multiple rare earths (cerium, strontium sulfide, pure titanium, etc) that indicate more of a production type facility (Boeing has been mentioned) where numerous rare earths are collected together in a single place.
Better known as 318230.
I have edited the wiki page to reference "skyjacking" for you... Just kidding.. but you know anyone can edit wikipedia right? it isnt really a "definitive" source.
By the way, this is why the Hitchcock film North By Northwest is called North By Northwest. In the film, they fly on Northwest airlines. It's in the bloody film. Right after the auction house scene, the police take him to the airport. Northwest ticket counter, Northwest planes. It was product placement.
They didn't fly North though.
If nobody suspected them how come they're dead?
[looks around nervou$kljl@#$ o;
no carrier]
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Skyjacking is a specific term that came into use in the 1960s to describe the rash of airplane hijackings that occurred in the late 60s and 70s. I count 20 skyjackings that involved the United States in just the decade of 1970. It is a specific type of hijacking that involves airplanes, and which typically takes place while the plane is in the sky during flight. Thus the plane is redirected to some other destination because the risk of the threat being real must be taken seriously.
I presume you are in your 20s to have not encountered this word, which is defined in pretty much every English dictionary there is. If you prefer "A hijacking that occurs on an airplane while the plane is in flight" over "skyjacking" then feel free to use the longer phrase in your writings and conversation. However your lack of exposure to this word hardly makes it "tabloid-headline made-up".
To totally beat this point to death, here are some various dictionary entries.
https://www.merriam-webster.co...
https://dictionary.cambridge.o...
https://en.oxforddictionaries....
https://www.dictionary.com/bro...
https://www.thefreedictionary....
https://www.macmillandictionar...
I also note that the Chome spellchecker knows this word by default as well.
Better known as 318230.
How does a "military background" demonstrate an ability to jump out of an airliner?
My father put 25 years in the Army. I think he may have done Jump School before I was born. Maybe. Probably not, but it's possible.
I was in the Navy. As was my brother. Neither of us ever got farther off the ground than the top of the Sail, except to fly as passengers on a civilian airliner across the Atlantic.
So, while an Air Force background might suggest an ability to skydive (most Air Force types never get in the air, except to be passengers on a civilian airliner across the Atlantic or Pacific), Navy background suggests no such thing (unless you're a Navy Pilot)....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Long before the TSA. Too many detours to Cuba. Then we all got metal detectors.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Skyjackers are why we have airline security checks. Before that people just drove to the airport and got on airplanes. Airliners used to get hijacked *all the time* back then. There was a Monty Python bit where a man hijacks a bus and orders it to take him to Cuba, for example. But it's gone down the memory hole today, as you point out. There were also a bunch of left wing terrorist groups that bombed buildings and planted bombs on airliners and there been completely forgotten as well.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Mod this guy up!
notes that Clair, who spent his career in relatively low-level jobs, retired in 1973 when he was just 54 years old..
Retiring at 54 from a railroad was not unusual back in the 70s -- it is one of the reasons Penn Central and other US freight railroads all went bankrupt!
Railroad employees pay into the Railroad Retirement system (instead of Social Security), which provides really good retirement benefits. At age 54, he could have had 30 years of service if he had started at the railroad in 24 (after having served in the military.) Having been in "relatively low-level jobs" would mean he would have been earning overtime -- getting paid 1.5 times his hourly rate for every hour he "worked" over 40 hours. He was working in a heavily unionized industry, where overtime is handed out based upon seniority, so staying in "low level jobs" often made more financial sense than going into management.
I presume you are in your 20s to have not encountered this word,
No, but not American. I just tried googling the 9/11 attacks, and every article I saw used the words "hijack" and "hijacker" not "skyjacker", so I still think "skyjack" is a bit of informal regional slang, or at least archaic by this century. Dictionaries contain a lot of obscure words with better alternatives.
"while the plane is in the sky during flight"
As opposed to when it is on the ground during flight.
Notice how the summary conveniently leaves out the amount stolen? SO Trivial. Yeah yeah I know it was a "lot" back then, just goes to show that The real criminal here is inflation. One of those things people never question, just take it as a fact of life.
True, I didn't hear skyjacking used to describe the 9/11 flights either. The normal connotations of "skyjacking" are actually relatively peaceful, in that the motive isn't to kill everyone on board or weaponize the plane. Usually skyjackers wanted one of two things - to be flown to some other country, and / or money. They typically aren't suicidal, and typically do not actually intend on killing everyone on the plane or people on the ground. Many skyjackings were made with the mere threat of a bomb, or with something inert that looked similar to a bomb. I believe towards the end of that era the skyjackings did start to become more violent and innocent people started dying as officials began to crack down and upped the ante.
Better known as 318230.
Please speak English, not tabloid-headline made-up words.
The hell are you talking about?
Skyjacking is in every online dictionary I just checked, (4 of 4) and is also in the autocorrect dictionary for my web browser.
It isn't not a word just because you don't know it.
I agree with the OP, Skyjacking is a stupid term. Someone is jacking the sky? WTF!
Air piracy is probably a better term to use (but even that gives the wrong impression: air is being pirated?!) The best term is airplane hijacking -- due to its unambiguous and clear nature.
I've never heard of skyjacking in 40+ years. The news has always reported this as hijacking as far as I've seen / heard / read.
There is a period of time, after you board your flight, where the plane is not in the air, and another period of time after it lands when the flight is on the ground.
Not any more
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
“Skyjacking” came into use during those years as a newspaper headline term. Kids, ask your grandpa what a “newspaper” was.
"Air piracy" sounds like something people will be charged with in the future, when they neglect to pay for the air they breathe. But no, "Air piracy" is not a better term to use at all.
I kept reading, waiting for an explanation
You cannot be this dumb. I know, because you managed to type other real words into that post of yours.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/skyjacking
Well since that is the actual federal crime in the US it is indeed the right word.
How do you expect an unconnected 3rd party to collect and analyze DNA off the tie? Isn't that the official investigators responsibility? The government has the budget and tools to that.
Face it, the fact that a random sleuth took things this far is nothing short of amazing!
There was a Monty Python bit where a man hijacks a bus and orders it to take him to Cuba, for example.
... which comes at the end of a sketch (Here) where a man tries to hijack a plane flying to Cuba to divert it to Luton :-
Agreed, skyjacking is different to hijacking, but it a colloquial word of time.
Skyjacking is essentially newspaper slang for robbery in the sky, like carjacking it is from jacking slang for robbery.
While Hijack is not robbery based.
You never heard of it because you were a youngster and not paying attention to the TV news in the 70's.
Grow up, fool.
Yes, he can be that Dumb.
The younger generations have been totally dumbed down, our society is lost.
I still think "skyjack" is a bit of informal regional slang, or at least archaic by this century.
It's not informal, regional, or slang. It's a well-understood term for American English speakers. Even if it was obscure, the subject and the base words ("sky" + "jack") lend themselves to a very easy contextual understanding of the word for almost any English-speaker.
I don't think this was really such a mystery for you. I think you just wanted to whinge.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
The best term is airplane hijacking -- due to its unambiguous and clear nature.
That's excessively verbose, which is the enemy of effective communication in English. Try German, down the hall and to the left.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
... which is why 9/11 was successful... We assumed that the hijackers did not intend suicide and destruction, like past skyjackers
I kept reading, waiting for an explanation, but not given, so googled DB Cooper (no link!?) and found out they mean "hijacking".
Please speak English, not tabloid-headline made-up words.
The important bit it: the term "skyjacking" was common at the time of DB Cooper's stunt and it was the word used to describe the incident when it happened.
All words are made-up words, of course, but this one is well understood when describing this particular case. Much like the phrase "Jack the Ripper" was the creation of journalists of the time, but it's now the most-understood way to refer to that particular serial killer. The "DB Cooper skyjacking" is a similar phrase.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I think it is the same as jacking off.... Just in an airplane... Similar to the mile high club.... Just by yourself...
If that was D.B. Cooper then one of the identity sketches would not have given him a pencil thin nose. He's got a massive schnoz, it's the dominant feature of his face. This is ridiculous, just another amateur pushing a theory where his suspect looks nothing like one of the sketches so he cherry picks the other sketch that closes the gap a but but still doesn't have the large nose. The FBI investigator Ralph Himmelsbach looks more like the sketches. I saw his photo and thought "hmm... maybe" then read the caption and scrolled down, only to find a guy who couldn't possibly be a match. It's a shame enthusiasts can't be a little more objective in their evaluations.
There are also infrequent instances of aircraft being on the ground while in flight, that generally are rather brief moments.
Seems like every time there is a new book, article, documentary..."DB Cooper" pops up. Give it up. He's dead, probably has been for decades, that is if he even survived.
Hijacking includes robbery based, for example trucks having their cargo stolen. The term is not limited to hostage taking, political terrorism.
Skyjacking is more directly derived from hijacking and predates the common use of carjacking.
Skyjacking emerged in the 1960s/70s during a period of frequent airline aircraft takeovers by terrorists, not so much the commercially minded as in the DB Cooper case. Yet like hijacking the dual use, commercial and political terrorism, was well understood. Hijacking simply leaned towards the commercial, skyjacking simple leaned towards the political. The words are very closely related. Skyjacking was commonly understood as hijacking, but with an airplane.
I think the military bit had to do with:
* being able to plan
* being trainable (ex the civilian parachuting school)
* being somewhat risk tolerant
* being somewhat able to overcome fear and complete a task
Also the older former paratrooper could teach the younger former sailor about techniques for landing around obstacles, getting down out of trees, etc. Things not normally taught in civilian training.
And then there is the likelihood that one veteran would see another veteran as a more trustworthy partner than a civilian, even with service in different branches.
STOP PERPETUATING LIES.
Cheney ordered it shot down. Bush was hiding in the toilet at that minute.
Look, it's Ivan Flambaitski
in case you hadn't noticed Americans like to redefine or replace English words they don't like,
eg. Spyware is now called Telemetry
extra-judicial killings = collateral damage
civilian = illegal combatant
Cannabis = Marijuana
and so on.
The US mil at that time gave smart people selected on merit access to repeated training needed to parachute into wilderness at any time of day.
This was before Project 100,000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... so the accepted US mil skill level, fitness and IQ would have been great for that generation.
The FBI would have been all over any strange flight school and parachute clubs looking for people who did not fit into that decade of normal people doing normal "parachute" things.
The mil then becomes alternative way to have learned a skill used and had the out door skills to escape on the ground.
The "Navy" part is the open question for the slashdot US mil historians.
Early special forces? Elite units?
Someone who had to maintain and prepare Navy parachutes?
"Navy" was early mil cover for a lot of over activity by other agency units?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Much like the phrase "Jack the Ripper" was the creation of journalists of the time, but it's now the most-understood way to refer to that particular serial killer. The "DB Cooper skyjacking" is a similar phrase.
Thanks folks. As suspected the word appears unique to American newspaper headlines of the period (1970s), and a movie title.
It is clearer now to this confused foreigner. I guess the DB Cooper case, and attached term, must be a s famous in the US as Jack the Ripper elsewhere. But it is still not in common usage today.
Wouldn't you be confused by an article that used "ripper" in place of "murderer"? Sure you get from the context that there was a murder, but be trying to figure out what specifically a "ripper" was. It would not be good writing.
Even Fox News has high enough standards to use the proper word:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/fre...
Some other US sources use "skyjack" in the headline, but hijack afterwards.
I remember catching a short hall "shuttle" plane. No ticket. Walk up to the plane, hand put your luggage on a trolly, hop on board and find a seat. Plane takes off when full. And you pay on the plane itself. Quick and easy and cheap. Long forgotten now.
Boeing Engineer and Manager James Klansnic was the elusive hijacker Dan âoeDBâ Cooper. Come on and use your head people. A guy from jersey would risk jumping into unfamiliar territory at night and walk all the way back with the money to jersey? You can do your own research on this but the pilots flying the plane that night didnâ(TM)t know the aft stairs could be deployed during the flight, but Cooper did. Some railman from jersey knew this? James Klansnic was DB Cooper ifounddbcooper.wordpress.com
It's called the "half mile high club".
They also act dumb when someone else uses a word that is different to the one they typically use. Meaning they don't even attempt to determine the meaning from context.
Stupid Americunts.
And the "hi" in "hijack" comes from "highway". So substituting "sky" for it isn't weird at all.
"The data analyst says the two men's military backgrounds -- Smith served in the Navy -- and long experience in the railroad business would have made it possible for either of them to successfully parachute from a low-flying jetliner, find railroad tracks once they were on the ground"
That is the dumbest thing I have ever read.
What exactly about Navy service would make him understand *sport parachutes*? If you're not familiar with this issue, DB Cooper specifically requested a type of parachute known as a "Para-Commander" which was at that time the new hotness in sport jumping.
http://www.parachutehistory.com/round/pc.html
This was not a military chute, and it is not clear how Navy service would suggest he knew anything about *any* chutes, let alone sport models.
"he would have been no more than 5-to-7 miles from tracks."
5 to 7 miles, at night, and in a forest. Is this guy serious? You can't see a rail line at 100 yards at night in a forest. I know, we had one in our back yard (literally):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Eastern_Railway
"Then there's his theory about the "grudge""
Yeah, his company went bankrupt. Like thousands of others.
"The researcher acknowledges he could be wrong about all of this"
Indeed.
This guy's next book will be on Emilia I'll bet.
Hey, I paid my air tax. I'm behind on my carbon-dioxide disposal fees, though.
And the "hi" in "hijack" comes from "highway".
This is intuitive, but wrong. It comes from the instructions given to carriage-drivers by the robbers: "Hold 'em up high, Jack."
This is intuitive, but a baseless folk etymology. It most probably comes from a term for zinc ore, and the miners who stole it (Cohen 1989).
This is intuitive, but a baseless folk etymology. It most probably comes from a term for zinc ore, and the miners who stole it (Cohen 1989).