Flight 305 eventually landed at Reno, Nevada. The flight crew had long assumed Cooper had jumped. When they left the cockpit and walked the aisle, the plane was empty.

   As FBI forensics men came aboard, they found 2 parachutes, one with cut cords. They fingerprinted everything they could, but they could lift no prints identifying the man who had called himself Dan Cooper.

   Along with the flight crew, parachute and weather experts were interviewed. The air pressure oscillations reported by the flight crew at 8:12 p.m. were viewed as significant. It was believed that Cooper had jumped. Free of the weight of a 175 pound man, the lowered aft stairs, it was proposed, had bounced back up and then lowered again, causing the oscillations.

     Based on these oscillations and wind drift, search computations pinpointed the drop zone: 

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