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A comment on A team of former FBI investigators claims to have identified D.B. Cooper. Parent comment

Re:A team of former FBI investigators claims to have identif... by dmix on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @08:21PM (#17454570)
And in this case a bunch of former feds/FBI agents have a huge confirmation bias: in their minds the only person who could escape their almighty grasp for this long MUST be another super-smart government agent (just like themselves). Someone who was trained in counter-intelligence and spycraft.

It does make sense on the surface... but once you factor in the source and the (very likely) alternative that he simply died in a massive forest into which he parachuted, I don't know, I'm just less convinced.

Plus as we saw with the Silk Road DEA/Secret Service bitcoin theft stuff, federal agents don't necessarily make good criminals simply because they were well-trained feds/LEO.

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Re:A team of former FBI investigators claims to have identif... by jonathanstrange on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @05:02AM (#17456084)
That seems like the least likely explanation to me. A parachuter does not plan to jump into a massive forest without having any reasonable plans of what to do after landing. Bear in mind that every detail of the robbery was planned in advance.
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Re:A team of former FBI investigators claims to have identif... by ceejayoz on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @11:55PM (#17460759)
It's the dying during landing that's the issue.
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Re:A team of former FBI investigators claims to have identif... by jeffdavis on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @10:19PM (#17454904)
Why do you say it's very likely that he died in the forest?
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Re:A team of former FBI investigators claims to have identif... by ceejayoz on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @10:27PM (#17454926)
Parachuting into a remote, mountainous, forested region at night in November isn't the safest of endeavors.
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Re:A team of former FBI investigators claims to have identif... by concertina on Wednesday July 04, 2018 @12:57AM (#17455350)
Especially given that it was the 1970's and parachutes had absolutely no steering back then.

At night, in the dark, I'm not sure if it would be worse getting stuck 50 or 100 feet off the ground, in a tree that can't be safely climbed, or dropped right in the middle of an unfamiliar frigid lake, and having to swim to shore before hypothermia sets in.

I think, getting stuck in some widow-maker of a tree leaves you with a fighting chance to wait until daylight, to negotiate how to overcome the hazard, but a lake forces you to struggle, possibly into a bad decision, because you have to act before the cold overwhelms you.

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