It has been a busy week for me. Thanks to the help of a collaborator (known only as snowmman), I was able to track down the persistent rumor that an Air Force C-130 was trailing Flight 305 all during the skyjacking. I also gained further knowledge about the two F-106 Delta Darts scrambled out of McChord AFB. Unfortunately, I have little or no information on the Air National Guard (or Army) helicopter that is rumored to have joined the chase (with FBI Agent Ralph Himmelsbach onboard). I’ll run that to ground eventually. I also was able to get the handwritten “crew’s notes” up on my website.

 First, let me tell you about the Air Force’s participation in the Northwest Flight 305 skyjacking (NORJAK). There has been a rumor that two F-106s were scrambled to pursue Flight 305, it turned out to be true. Here is an excerpt from history of the 325th Fighter Wing, 318th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron known as "Green Dragons" at McChord AFB:

 “On Thanksgiving eve 1971 a man calling himself "D.B Cooper" boarded a Northwest Orient flight in Portland, OR and once aloft  threatened to blow up the plane if did not receive $200,000 and four parachutes. The plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport were his demands were met, Cooper ordered the Boeing 727 to take off and head for Mexico.

 A short time later Two F-106's from the 318th FIS were called in to action to chase the airliner. Their task that night was to the shadow hijacked airliner and track its escape to Mexico.  Cooper would later jump from the rear of the plane somewhere over Washington State, taking the money with him. His “whereabouts” is still one of the great mysteries of the 20th Century.

 Squadron Members of the 318th would commemorate this incident with an annual dinner which was held until the units deactivation in 1989.”

 An annual dinner, huh? I’ll bet that was fun while it lasted.

 Also, the rumor about the C-130, was confirmed when I got a history of the 39^th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Wing, 41^st ARRS. From it I was able to find that:

 A Lockheed Hercules C-130 out of Hamilton Air Force Base, California, commanded by Captain Bruce Kennard of the 41^st ARRS, was sent to intercept Flight 305. The HC-130 intercepted the B-727 around Red Bluff, CA, at which time they turned out their lights and followed at 12,000 ft MSL and five miles in trail (about 1000 feet above Flight 305). The Tail # of the HC-130 was 65-0983, the call sign was Air Rescue 50983.

 So, the score: two F-106s, confirmed. An HC-130, confirmed. An Army or Air National Guard helicopter, unconfirmed.

 Last week I introduced the term “cultural goggles.” Well, I’m not done with that topic yet. Since the handwritten crew’s notes have been released, there has been a lot of speculation as to what they actually say. The notes were hastily scribbled and later annotated. The crew was under about as much stress as humans can take. Put yourself in their place. A man with (what he represented as) a bomb is threatening to blow-up the airplane (with you in it) if his demands aren’t met. Needless to say, under those conditions the lessons learned in Mrs. Green’s 3^rd grade Penmanship class or Mr. Brown’s 10^th grade English Composition class went out the door. Therefore, sometimes the meaning is difficult to understand and some interpretation is required.

 The same is true of the Communications Transcript the FBI released a few months ago. The first section (from page 89 through page 106) is composed of output from a teletype machine (TTY). An individual is listening to radio transmissions and typing what he or she hears into the TTY so it can be read at Northwest’s headquarters in Minnesota (it is believed). There was no backspace key on a TTY terminal, mistakes were usually indicated by a string of Xs like this “TODAYXXX TOMMOROW” indicating that the operator had meant to say Tomorrow instead of today.

 A case in point is a passage that occurred at 7:57PM PST and is found on page 104 of the transcript:

 MSP FLT OPS    HAVE STEW DESCRIBE TO U
THE BRIEF CASE CONTENTS    UNDERSTAND
RED DYNAMITE STICKS WIRE AND BATTERY
305 STEW    IN BRF CASE  LEFT CONRNER HAD 8
STICKES OF XXXX DYNAMITE     ABT 6 INCHES LONG
AND   1 INCH IN DIAMTR    TWO ROWS OF THEM
THEN A WIRE OUT OF THERE     THEN A BATT LITE
A FLASHLITE BATT    ONLY AS STHIK AS MY ARM
AND 8 INCHES LONG

 This passage has generated a lot of discussion on some of the Internet Forums because it is often interpreted to give credence to a rumor that there was a light bulb in the briefcase. I am referencing the word “LITE” in the third line from the bottom.

 Now here is where cultural goggles come in. For me, having used TTY equipment in about the same time as NORJAK, and having seen a battery that has not been manufactured in about 25 years, there is no argument here. It clearly means (even though it’s not what it says):

 Then a battery, like a flashlight battery, only a thick as my arm.

 Whose arm, Scott’s, Mucklow’s, I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter, because, I can see the battery in my mind. Albeit, through my cultural goggles.

 To me, she is describing a Columbia Battery (Columbia Dry Cell). In the 1950s and 1960s, every kid interested in science had one or two. Originally designed for telephone systems and battery powered radios, they were the mainstay high-output battery for hobby projects and science experiments. They were 6.0625 inches long and about 2.5 inches in diameter. What else could she be describing? It wasn’t a flashlight battery, she tells you that. There weren’t nearly as many styles of consumer batteries available in 1971 as there are now. No MP3 players to run, no battery powered tooth brushes, etc.

But to a younger person, the passage clearly indicates that there was a light bulb and a flashlight battery in Cooper’s briefcase.

As a result, the web is full of speculation about why Cooper had a light bulb in his briefcase. Was it to light his way during his dark night in the woods? Was it part of a detonation system for the bomb? Or, was it a nonexistent, figment of the imagination of a group of people too young to remember the No.6 Columbia Battery, and unwilling to admit that human beings, under stress, don’t type worth squat.

Do you want to discuss this topic with me? Post your comments below, we can agree, we can disagree, but in any case…. Bring your cultural goggles because it’ll get messy and you’ll want to cover your eyes.