Man questions if FBI found Cooper's chute

SEATTLE, March 27 (UPI) -- The man who packed the parachute used by D.B. Cooper said he doubts the parachute found this month by the FBI was the one used in the unsolved U.S. hijacking.

Cooper, on a commercial flight to Seattle from Portland, Ore., on Nov. 24, 1971, handed a flight attendant a note saying he had a bomb in his suitcase. He demanded $200,000 and four parachutes. After getting the goods at Sea-Tac Airport, the plane headed for Mexico.

Earl Cossey, a former instructor at an Issaquah sky-diving school, told the newspaper Cooper used the parachute he packed.

"Choosing from the parachutes he had was like choosing whether to take a Cadillac or a Volkswagen to California," Cossey said of Cooper. "The one he didn't use was padded and very good."

Cossey said unless they find the harness with the chute, he's not sure it's the same one.

"Why would he take the harness off the parachute if he's wanted with $200,000 in ransom money?" he asked. "I think they're barking up the wrong tree."