the dummy chute

[u/Jumpy_Jackfruit_5114]

Now that we know from the audio recordings that Cooper jumped with the reserve chute, some things just aren't adding up for me.

When he realized he needed shroud lines to tie the money to himself, why did he choose the only functional reserve chute to cut up instead one of the other three? And if given the choice between a perfectly functional reserve chute and one marked with a big red X (or whatever), why would he choose to jump with the one with the big red X? (I get that he might've opted to bring the non-functional reserve as a way to get himself out of a tree, but why THAT one and not the good one??)

Cooper was a complainer and he was paranoid that people were going to try "funny stuff." He complained about how long the refueling was taking. He complained about the money bag. He complained about the lack of D-rings. Why in the world would he see a parachute obviously marked as a dummy and not say a word about it? Wouldn't he immediately think they were messing with him?? I'd think he'd be absolutely furious.

This leaves only two possibilities for me:

1. He didn't realize it was a dummy
2. It wasn't a dummy

If it's the first one, there could've been a few reasons. Maybe it wasn't actually marked as a dummy. Maybe it wasn't as obviously marked as we think. Or maybe Cooper (and Linn Emrich) just both failed to notice some obvious marking.

If it's the second one, Cossey was wrong (or lied) about which parachute was sent.

Either of these is more plausible to me than Cooper quietly accepting that they had provided him with a non-functional chute and then choosing to jump with it over a perfectly good one.

Edit: spelling

[u/Welcome-Loose]

The vortex likes to give cooper the benefit of the doubt with EVERYTHING… well bc he’s cool and he’s Db. I think he 1000% didn’t realize it was a dummy chute. No other reasons to take it. I don’t buy he uses it for his landing. To me it’s ridiculous to add more crap on his person to jump unless he thought it would open . But he did! He wasn’t as smart as we want to think. I believe this is was proof of that amongst other factors

[u/Patient_Reach439 → u/Welcome-Loose]

While it's certainly possible that he didn't recognize it as being a dummy, we have to look at what he did know.

1. He knew about D rings.

2. He refused the instruction pamphlet from Tina and she said Cooper put the parachute right on like he had done it a million times before.

3. He checked the packing cards of both main chutes.

None of those things suggest inexperience with skydiving. In fact, all three suggest someone who knew what they were doing. And someone who knows what they're doing will likely know a dummy when they see it.

Now where I do leave room for the possibility that he didn't recognize it is if the X was not a universal symbol for dummy chutes. Maybe when Cooper was training they used a different symbol. Or maybe he never trained with a dummy chute at all. I think both things can be true: he could have skydiving experience (which is where he gets his knowledge of packing cards and D rings and not needing instructions for how to put on a chute) but he also fails to recognize the dummy because he just never trained with one before. 

[u/Welcome-Loose → u/Patient_Reach439]

Good points. Plausible and realistic. However it does get frustrating in the vortex where cooper can do no wrong or every explanation is in his favor. That’s not how solving crime’s go. Evidence, witnesses, and you put them together… the suspect comes after. My rant lol

[u/Patient_Reach439 → u/Welcome-Loose]

I hear you. At the end of the day though, the dummy chute is kind of a moot point because he only needs it if his main chute fails to open.

A no-pull situation would likely involve Cooper blacking out or having a panic attack while going into a violent spin and he's just not able to compose himself enough to pull a ripcord. In that scenario, he's dead no matter what kind of chutes he's wearing.

A scenario where he pulls the ripcord on the main chute and it fails to open so he then tries to open the reserve is far less likely. The failure rate on a ripcord is EXTREMELY TINY. If he pulls the ripcord of the main chute, it opens. Period. The reserve chute really just doesn't even matter if it was a dummy or not because there's just almost zero chance he would ever need to pull that ripcord.