D.B. Cooper

On a cold and rainy day in November 1971, a man boarded a plane in Portland, Oregon, with a briefcase and a ticket to Seattle, Washington. He seemed like an ordinary passenger, wearing a dark suit, a white shirt and a black tie. He ordered a drink and calmly waited for the flight to take off. But he was hiding a secret that would shock the world and make him one of the most infamous hijackers in history.

His name was Dan Cooper, or at least that’s what he told the flight attendant when he handed her a note that said he had a bomb in his briefcase and wanted $200,000 in cash and four parachutes. He also instructed her to sit next to him and not to alert anyone else on the plane. The flight attendant complied and saw that he had indeed wires and red sticks in his briefcase that looked like explosives.

The pilot contacted the authorities and informed them of the hijacker’s demands. The plane landed in Seattle, where Cooper released the 36 passengers and two flight attendants in exchange for the money and the parachutes. He kept the pilot, the co-pilot and another flight attendant on board and ordered them to fly to Mexico City, with a refuelling stop in Reno, Nevada.

But Cooper had no intention of going to Mexico. About half an hour after taking off from Seattle, he opened the rear door of the plane, lowered the stairs and jumped into the night with a parachute and the money strapped to his body. He vanished into the darkness over southwestern Washington, never to be seen again.

The FBI launched an extensive investigation into the hijacking, which they called NORJAK (Northwest Hijacking). They interviewed hundreds of people, followed thousands of leads, searched the area where Cooper landed, analysed the evidence left on the plane and checked the serial numbers of the ransom money. They also released sketches of Cooper’s appearance based on eyewitness accounts.

But despite their efforts, they could not find any conclusive clues about Cooper’s identity or fate. They considered more than 800 suspects, but none of them matched all the criteria. They also speculated that Cooper might have died during or after his jump, due to the bad weather conditions, his lack of proper skydiving equipment, his unfamiliarity with the terrain and his inability to spend or hide the money.

However, no body or parachute was ever recovered from the area. And in 1980, a young boy found $5,800 of the ransom money buried along the banks of the Columbia River, about 20 miles from where Cooper jumped. The money was still bundled in the same straps as when it was given to Cooper. The discovery raised more questions than answers: How did the money get there? Was it part of Cooper’s stash or did someone else plant it there? Did Cooper survive or die?

The mystery of D.B. Cooper has captivated the public imagination for decades. It has inspired books, movies, documentaries, songs and even a musical. It has also attracted many amateur sleuths who have proposed various theories and candidates for Cooper’s identity. Some of them claim to have solved the case or even to be Cooper themselves.

But none of these claims have been verified by the FBI, which officially suspended its active investigation of NORJAK in 2016. The case remains open but inactive, meaning that no agents are assigned to it unless new credible information emerges. The FBI still holds some evidence from the hijacking, including Cooper’s tie, his briefcase bomb and some of the ransom money.

D.B. Cooper is still considered one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in FBI history and one of the most daring acts of air piracy ever committed. He is also a legend who has fascinated generations of people who wonder who he was, what he did and where he went.