I have read and seen several different scenarios of how Cooper survived. If he did survive the jump, there has been no reasonable explaination (to my satisfaction) for the money found. If Cooper had lived, why would he take his very hard earned ransom money and dump $5,800 of it? None of the other bills ever showed up in circulation - what did he do with it?

See the map below - I think he probably landed in the water and either died on impact or shortly thereafter, and some of the bills made in down the waterway.

I still love my bill fragment - imagine that it made it out of the plane!!