3D"Seattle

FBI rejects latest D.B. Cooper suspect

Bonney L= ake man accused of crime

October 26, 2007

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A man identified in a recent magazine article as possibly having been the infamous plane hijacker D.B. Cooper was almost certainly not him, the FBI s= aid Friday.

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While t= he man's face resembled a composite sketch of Cooper, the height, weight, eye color = and skin tone were all too far off, said Special Agent Larry Carr, who has been assigned to the long-unsolved case for the past six months.

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Cooper = hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland in 1971 and parachuted out with $200,000 in ransom money. His fate remains unknown, but Carr said he believes Cooper died in the jump.

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New York maga= zine recently located a Minnesota<= /st1:place> man, Lyle Christiansen, who believed his brother Kenneth of Bonney Lake -- a Northwest employee and former paratrooper -- was D.B. Cooper.

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But the= man was 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds, at least 4 inches shorter and about 30 pounds ligh= ter than Cooper. Kenneth Christiansen, who died of cancer in 1994, had hazel ey= es, not brown, and he had pale skin, not olive.

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"H= e's not a viable suspect," FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs said.

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Though = the case has been dormant in recent years, Carr said he plans to release details nev= er before seen by the public -- including notes written by the flight attendan= ts and conversations between the plane and the tower -- in hopes that will pro= mpt new clues.

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In the hijacking, a man who identified himself as Dan Cooper boarded a plane headed for Seattle on Nov. 24, 1971, told the crew once the plane was in the air that he had a bo= mb and demanded $200,000 and parachutes. When the plane landed at Seattle, he released the passengers in exchange for the money and ordered the pilot = to fly toward Mexico. While in the air, Cooper apparently then jumped from the rear stairway of t= he plane.

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The jum= per later became known as D.B. Cooper after authorities questioned and then released a man named Daniel B. Cooper. That man was cleared, but the name stuck.

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