THOUGHTS IN THE VORTEX
Home › Write-ups

Write-ups

Long-form write-ups on Northwest Orient Flight 305, the D.B. Cooper hijacking of November 24, 1971. Every claim is tied to the FBI's own pages, cited as Vault part / PDF page / Bates number, so you can check it yourself.

Latest report
NORJAK · Flight 305 · The jump and the drop zone
We're Getting Some Oscillations in My Sanity
Where the F@$# Did He Jump
Jump · 8:11 PM ±1 minHeard live on the company radio and reproduced by the January 1972 sled test
Drop zone · 1972 zone holdsEvery 8:11 zone rebuilt with real 1971 winds falls inside NWA's envelope
Route · V-23 or bustLow, slow and gear-down left one workable way south
Report · October 2026

We're Getting Some Oscillations in My Sanity

Where the F@$# Did He Jump

When Cooper left the plane, where the plane was, and every place the FBI decided he could have landed. The report also tests the "later jump" theory, shows how Cooper's own demands pinned the plane to Victor 23, and rebuilds the drop zone with the 1971 weather-balloon winds.

All reports
NORJAK · Flight 305 · The jump and the drop zone
We're Getting Some Oscillations in My Sanity
Where the F@$# Did He Jump
Jump · 8:11 PM ±1 minHeard live on the company radio and reproduced by the January 1972 sled test
Drop zone · 1972 zone holdsEvery 8:11 zone rebuilt with real 1971 winds falls inside NWA's envelope
Route · V-23 or bustLow, slow and gear-down left one workable way south
Report · October 2026
NORJAK · Flight 305 · The parachute left behind
Two Cards, One Chute
Reconciling the Cooper Packing Cards
Card A · 26′Pioneer Parachute Co. · 26′ ripstop conical · survives with the chute (photographed 2011)
Card B · 24′Steinthal Mfg. Co. · 24′ rip stop · 60-9707 · 7/60 · known only from FBI paperwork
Report · October 2026
About the write-ups

Everything here comes from the FBI's own NORJAK file as released on the FBI Vault, plus clearly marked outside sources. A citation like 110 / 267 / 566 means Vault Part 110, PDF page 267, Bates stamp DB Cooper-566, so you can open the page and read it yourself.

Each report comes with its sources: the Oscillations report has a companion PDF reproducing every FBI page it cites, with a header on each page naming the sections that use it.