Parachute may yield clues to daredevil US hijacker: report wrote:Wed Mar 26, 5:33 PM

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A tattered parachute found in a rugged region of northwest Washington state may yield clues to the fate of the robber behind a daring high-altitude hijacking 37 years ago, reports said Wednesday.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that a parachute found on rural land was being examined to see if it belonged to hijacker D.B. Cooper, who leapt from a commercial jet in 1971 after collecting 200,000 dollars ransom.

FBI investigators have for years said Cooper most likely did not survive the jump from 10,000 feet, but the hijacker's body has never been found.

The recently discovered parachute is believed to be similar to the one Cooper used and was dug up by a man plowing land at his property in Clark County, FBI agent Larry Carr told the newspaper.

"If D.B. Cooper had pulled his chute not long after that jump, he would have landed in that area," Carr said. "Is this D.B. Cooper's parachute? We don't know yet."

The case is often described as the world's only unsolved hijacking, and began when a man travelling as Dan Cooper threatened to blow up a plane flying from Portland to Seattle.

Cooper demanded 200,000 dollars and four parachutes, which were given to him after the plane landed at Seattle airport. After the plane took off Cooper made his getaway.

None of Cooper's ransom money ever found its way into circulation although nearly 6,000 dollars was found along the banks of the Columbia River in 1980.