If he had died jumping, unless he was experienced in skydiving, they would have found more evidence than they did. If you weren't an expert skydiver, you would need six to seven practice jumps to successfully complete the jump Cooper performed. Cooper had to spend time in the air with a parachute. If Cooper didn't know what he was doing as a skydiver, he wouldn't have requested the four parachutes he requested. He also told the flight attendant that he did not need instructions on how to use the parachutes. If Northwest Airlines had not cooperated with Cooper, things would not have turned out the way they did. It could have happened very differently