The only unsolved skyjacking in American history. D B Cooper: Cased Closed? II
He was the first man in US history to hijack a plane for ransom. He leapt out of a commercial jet with a parachute, $200,000 and was never seen again dead or alive. It’s the only unsolved skyjacking case in aviation history. But to the public he is a lasting legend. Who was D B Cooper? Did he survive? Mystery of the Disappearing Skyjacker, National Geographic 2018
He wants $200,000 placed in a knapsack. He also wants four parachutes, two main back-chutes and two safety front-chutes. The terrified attendant takes both notes forward to the captain. Later Cooper will demand these notes back. ibid.
Months later a second almost identical skyjacking … McCoy is arrested on suspicion of both hijackings. But the FBI finds no evidence to connect McCoy with the Cooper crime. ibid.
The money [$5,800] is found more than twenty miles outside Dan Cooper’s dropzone and in the opposite direction from where the wind was blowing. ibid.
During the waning hours of Thanksgiving Eve 1971 a Boeing 727 leaves Portland bound for Seattle. This plane and its passengers will become the most infamous skyjacking in American history. A man called D B Cooper by the news media jumped from the plane over dense forests carrying four parachutes and $200,000. Why is the crime still unsolved? Who is Cooper? Where is the money today? (D B Cooper & Aeroplane & Hijack) In Search of s4e11 … D B Cooper, History 1979
The airline clerk who sold him his ticket did not take any special notice of Cooper. Later, through an error in newspaper reporting, he was incorrectly identified as D B Cooper, not Dan Cooper. ibid.
A note: it demanded $200,000 in $20 bills and 4 parachutes. ibid.
The first American to hold a plane and its passengers for ransom. ibid.
Cooper’s only motivation was the money. ibid.
Cooper could not have landed in a more inhospitable place. ibid.
Come, listen to the ballad of D B Cooper
Pre-dates the sickness of Abba’s Super Trouper,
Flare-wing shirts, British sports cars and glam-rock bands,
The sky-jacker D B Cooper descends to land –
Lowers an aft-steps gangplank and flops from a plane,
With parachute and sack of ill-gotten gains:
The only skyjacker to escape the Fuzz,
A beeline into headlines – a worldwide buzz.
And did this cool cat survive to tell the tale
By a leap into the dark, fog and force-nine gale?
Or did he land with a thunderous ker-splat:
Brains like blancmange, eye-balls bounce, rib-cage squashed flat?
On Thanksgiving Eve 1971
A man enters the airport of Oregon,
Black suit smoothly pressed, glasses and clip-on tie,
As sharp as a pearl pin this super-fly guy
Strides smartly to the counter of NOA,
Pays cash for a ticket Seattle one-way:
Aisle seat 18-C Boeing flight 305
A third full: the last passenger to arrive
Settles in the back and lights a cigarette,
With scotch and soda rides into the sunset.
From his black briefcase pulls a handwritten note,
Tugs at the hem of the stewardess’s coat:
－ ‘Excuse me, miss, but I think you’ll want to read
About the bomb in the case between my knees,
Come, sit beside me and I’ll give you a flash:
I simply ask for two hundred grand in cash,
Four parachutes, I’m not planning to stay,
And a fuel truck on the Seattle runway.’ －
The stewardess badly shaken but not stirred
Heads to the captain to impart the good word.
The airline’s president orders the payment
And full cooperation with the claimant
Described as smiling, well-spoken and polite,
Order drinks for the house and meals on the flight,
－ ‘Cheers!’ ‘Here’s to your good health!’ ‘Miss, please keep the change’ －
－ ‘Sir, your demands are met, the cash is arranged －’
An hour after sunset the partying roamers
Touch terra firma at Seattle-Tacoma,
The captain taxis to an apron outcrop,
A puff of relief, the plane gratefully stops.
Now the cool cat Cooper springs into action –
Staggers down the aisle to speak to the captain:
Together they espy a lone wary chap
Approach with parachutes and cash-filled knapsack
Safely delivered, Cooper evacuates
The stewardesses and partying inmates.
During refuelling, Cooper outlines the plot:
Fly slowly without stalling at one-hundred knots,
The landing gear deployed in take-off position
Fly southeast towards Mexico your mission,
Lower the wingflaps, cabin unpressurise,
Aft exit door open to spring a surprise.
At 7.40 with five people aboard –
The cabin crew thunderstruck, Cooper with hoard,
Head south-east into the Stygian abyss,
The cabin crew notice with Cooper amiss
On the panel a red warning bulb flashing
Suggests Cooper the aft airstairs unlashing,
But of the five spy-planes following the tail
Not one of them notice the skyjacker bail –
One giant leap into immortality
But was this a crime sans a fatality?
With each new moon the search-party of troopers
Find not a cent of the flyaway Cooper.
The experts argue could it be possible
For a besuited man to survive the fall?
But all are agreed with the temerity
Of Cooper passing to immortality.
Each Thanksgiving Eve to thee I propose
With champagne, chocolates and late-bloom red rose:
My love, Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly today
And midair sing the ballad of the one crazy cat skyjacker who got away.
esias, The Ballard of D B Cooper 2019
It was Thanksgiving Eve 1971 when a hijacker named D B Cooper parachuted out of the trail door of a North-West Airlines 727. Storyville: The Hijacker Who Vanished: The Mystery of D B Cooper, contemporary news report, cited BBC 2020
In November 1971 a man who became known as D B Cooper hijacked a plane flying out of Portland, Oregon. After demanding a $200,000 ransom, D B Cooper parachuted out of the hijacked 727 at 10,000 feet over Washington State. The case is still the only unsolved act of air piracy in American history. ibid. captions
Handed me this note, and it said, Miss, you’re being hijacked, I’ve got a bomb, come sit next to me. He opened the briefcase and showed me … He wasn’t going to be taken alive … On a 727 there’s nowhere to run. ibid. stewardess’ testimony
Northwest Orient Flight 305 departs Portland 2:50pm on a 37-minute flight to Seattle. ibid. caption
Four parachutes: that was our concern – that he wanted us to bail with him. ibid. pilot
With the money onboard D B Cooper demands the plane fly to Mexico City. It departs at 7:36 via planned stop to refuel at Reno, Nevada. ibid. caption
It’s a mystery that’s confounded law enforcement for 48 years. On November 24th 1971 a man who would become known as D B Cooper hijacks a plane and then jumps out, taking with him a ransom of $200,000. History’s Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne s1e3: The Final Hunt for D B Cooper, Eric Ulis reporting, History 2021
He gave the name Dan Cooper to the ticket agent. He would end up taking a seat in the very back row of the jet – 18E to be exact. The flight attendants recalled D B Cooper being a guy who was in his mid-forties dressed as a business person wearing a back suit, wearing loafers with a skinny black suit and a raincoat. And he would later put on a pair of dark sunglasses as the jet was about to take off. ibid.
There was no possibility that the money just washed ashore. The bundles of twenties were found just below the surface of the sand neatly stacked upon each other with the rubber bands still intact. ibid.
The FBI investigated more than a thousand suspects. ibid.
Eric believes this man could be D B Cooper – his name is Sheridan Peterson … Sheridan was 45 at the time of the skyjacking, and Eric believes his appearance is similar to the original sketch of D B Cooper. Sheridan lived in Seattle prior to the skyjacking, and was photographed in a suit and tie while posing as a skydiver. As a Boeing employee it’s also likely that Sheridan knew the inner workings of the 727. And finally, Eric does not believe Sheridan’s alibi can be corroborated at the time of the skyjacking. ibid.
The only unsolved skyjacking case in history. The perpetrator leaps from a moving plane with $200,000 cash and is never seen again. History’s Greatest Mysteries s4e14: Who is D B Cooper? History 2023
Who is D B Cooper? And will he ever be caught? ibid.
He’s a crook named D B Cooper … He’s a repeat offender viz Floyd McCoy … viz Dick Briggs … viz Robert Rackstraw … viz Walter Reca. ibid.
‘This guy [D B Cooper] pulled off a heist that nobody thought possible, no-one saw it coming, and nobody has created what he has done since.’ George Kourounis, science communicator, Conspiracies Decoded, DiscoveryPlus 2022
Who is the real D B Cooper? And what really happened on Flight 305? … The most well-known unsolved history in FBI history. True Crime Recaps: 3 Infamous Crimes, Youtube 33.25, 2021
He wanted $200,000 in $20 bills. He called it ‘negotiable American currency’. ibid.
An attempt to mislead investigators into thinking the drop-zone was some place it wasn’t? ibid.