the fbi was skeptical of cooper's odds of survival, concluding that he lacked crucial skydiving skills and experience. "we originally thought cooper was an experienced jumper, perhaps even a paratrooper", said carr. "we concluded after a few years this was simply not true. no experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a wind in his face wearing loafers and a trench coat. it was simply too risky. he also missed that his reserve parachute was only for training and had been sewn shut, something a skilled skydiver would have checked." cooper also failed to bring or request a helmet, jumped with a non-functional parachute into a probable wind at in november over washington state without proper protection against the extreme wind chill.