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.