Spy Plane Searches for Cooper
Hunting to find the missing hijacker, the federal government spared no costs. One startling detail contained in the F.B.I.'s Cooper case file is the repeated use of the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane to conduct surveillance photographs over the hijacker's drop zone.
In the winter of 1972, after months of failing to locate Cooper, records show U.S. Air Force officials oversaw the clandestine missions of the SR-71, a national counter-intelligence treasure. Built by Lockheed, the SR-71 could fly at speeds faster than 2,000 miles per hour, and at altitudes north of 85,000 feet.
While the super plane might have been successful at hunting down spies, it failed to to catch Cooper. The hijacker had Mother Nature on his side. According to one teletype transmission, dated to February 17th, 1972, sent to Bureau headquarters:
THE AIR FORCE HAS FLOWN ITS SR DASH SEVENTY ONE OVER THE DROP AREA IN SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON ON FIVE SEPARATE OCCASIONS, BUT NO PHOTOGRAPHS HAVE BEEN TAKEN. DUE TO ALTITUDE AT WHICH THE PLANE IS FLOWN, THEY WERE UNABLE TO FIND CONDITIONS WITHOUT SOME CLOUD COVER.
After five tries, the Air Force canceled the mission, and ground troops were dispatched into the drop zone area until deep into the spring.
The recent spotting of the SR-71 in the Cooper case was made by scientist Tom Kaye. In 2009, Kaye, along with metallurgist Alan Stone and scientific illustrator Carol Abraczinskas worked in conjunction with the F.B.I. to analyze decomposed bills that were part of Cooper's ransom and found buried in a sandy riverbank in February 1980. Going through Bureau's Cooper material, Kaye stumbled on an SR-71 passage.
"Well that's certainly interesting," Kaye said.
Certainly is. In researching SR-71 flights, I was told the approval to the use the spy plane on costly surveillance missions was made by top brass in the Pentagon, and potentially even the White House. Yet another mystery within the Cooper mystery: why did the government use a national spy plane to look for the parachuting hijacker?
