Will the Real D.B Cooper, Please Stand Up???

Isn't it strange, no matter how long ago you started your career, you always remember your first!! Your first working flight....Your first international destination...... Your first check-ride........ Your first time as lead. I remember, as though yesterday, my first international flight. It was back in the late 80's and I based in DTW, still on probation. I was assigned a flight to LAX. Overnite. And the following day, LAX-NRT. Yipee! Journey on to exotic Tokyo! WOW. How exciting. I was now able to enjoy what this job was all about.....the global travel. When I boarded the aircraft the next day in LAX, I was joined by a very senior SEA crew. These guys and gals could've been my grandparents! I'll never forget the "lead", his name was Ken Christensen and he reminded me of a quiet but friendly grandpa. I recall, his seniority number at that time was like, 57. Oh, the crew was great and they treated me well. They seemed to be invigorated by the excitement of the new kid on the block. My memories of that senior flight include Ken passing around a ground time sheet to be signed (at that time the sheet was signed by everyone, regardless of your base) and his signature appeared shaky and arthritic......Ken didn't say much, but silently visited every jumpseat and checked that we had each placed our flashlites in their holders and most of all, I remembered thinking how difficult this job must be for someone with a hearing aid in each ear! This young, twenty- something, could never imagine being here that long!Twenty years later, I still speak fondly of my first international flight with that SEA crew!! I would have never thought I'd still be here. I was in for quite a shock, when I recently read the New York Magazine article and the mysterious case of DB Cooper. Throughout the years, I had heard that it happened on a Northwest flight but NEVER had I heard what was now before me....

Thought you, too, might enjoy the story.

http://nymag.com/news/features/39593/

Who would have suspected, what has now been written about that kindly grandpa-like fellow, I met nearly 20 years ago. It is sad, now, to hear of the final years of Ken's life. But the memory and legacy of flying with Ken, forever remain. The folk hero status afforded the man that got away; The world will probably never know, for certain. Who would've suspected? Not I. Maybe just that; no one suspected, is why this remains an unsolved mystery.

Truth or Galley Gossip Years later, I recall discussing the topic with a former SEA flight attendant who knew some of the crew involved in the DB Cooper hijacking. She mentioned then that the "FBI thought it was an inside job. They used to call and harass the crew, even years later, on layovers and late at night with obscure questions about that day in 1971. One of the girls was so troubled by the incident she quit and joined the convent."

Have you heard this story? How about this one, some of the pursers smuggling gold into the country? Comment? Thoughts?