The Hijack
On the day before Thanksgiving in the USA a man calling himself Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle. Wearing a black raincoat, a dark suit and white shirt, dark sunglasses, a black tie with a mother of pearl tie pin and carrying a briefcase; the man in his mid-forties attracted little attention as he took his seat at the back of the plane.
A few minutes after take off he handed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner sitting nearby. Thinking that the passenger was trying to give her his phone number she slipped it unopened into her pocket. However encouraged by Cooper she opened it and read: “I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked.”
Cooper’s note also included instructions for $200,000 in unmarked $20 bills and two sets of parachutes to be delivered to the plane when it landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. When informed by Schaffner of the hijacking the pilot, William Scott, contacted Seattle air traffic control who in turn alerted the police and FBI. Told by the FBI and the airline to co-operate with the hijacker the plane went into a holding pattern until the money and parachutes were ready as requested. Cooper meanwhile, sat in the plane quietly sipping bourbon and soda.
At 17:24 the plane was radioed by air traffic control to inform them that the demands had been met. Once the plane had landed Cooper instructed Scott to taxi the plane to a quiet section of the tarmac and dim the interior lights. A Northwest Orient employee was chosen to deliver the cash and parachutes and after they were brought on board, the other 35 passengers and one of the flight attendants were released.
At this stage the FBI were puzzled as to Cooper’s intentions. Why had he requested four parachutes? The agents speculated as to whether he had an accomplice on board or if they were for the four members of the flight crew who were still on board the plane.
At 19:40, after refuelling, the plane retook to the skies heading for Reno where it was to refuel again before heading to Mexico. Immediately after take off Cooper ordered all the flight crew into the cockpit and told them to stay there. Moments later the crew noticed a flashing light indicating that the aft stairs had been opened and they noticed a sudden change in air pressure. At 20:13 they felt the aft stairway bump…
…Two air force jet fighters were tracking the airliner and the pilots reported seeing nothing drop from the plane.
The Hunt
Nearly two hours later the Boeing 727 landed safely at Reno airport despite the sparks caused by the aft stairway dragging on the tarmac. FBI agents and local police quickly surrounded the plane and upon boarding found only some fingerprints along with two of the parachutes and a black tie with a mother of pearl tie clip.
Although an exact landing point was difficult to determine a 28 mile projected landing zone was extensively searched by land and air throughout 1971 and spring 1972. There was no sign of Cooper, the money, his briefcase or the other two parachutes.
Their attention now turned to the money. For the ransom the FBI has selected $20 bills printed mostly in 1969 and having a serial number beginning with the letter L. Agents then ran all 10,000 bills through a Recordak machine which took a microfilm photograph of each one. Despite notifying financial institutions and other businesses of the serial numbers and offering significant rewards to the general public no bills from the ransom were turned in or recovered.
In 1978 a hunter found a placard containing instructions of how to lower the aft stairs of a 727 just a few flying minutes north of Cooper’s projected landing zone.
The trail had gone cold when in 1980 an eight year old boy discovered $5,800 in decaying $20 bills on the banks of the Columbia River. The FBI confirmed that the serial numbers on the bills matched those given to Cooper as part of his ransom nine years earlier.
Over the years the FBI’s suspect list has exceeded a 1,000 people and many possible candidates have been eliminated. It was during these investigations that the appellation “D. B. Cooper” became synonymous with the hijacker after the name of a local man who was the first major suspect.
The FBI believes Cooper knew the Seattle area, may have served in the US Air Force and been an experience skydiver. They later decided that no experienced sky diver would have attempted such a risky jump in a rainstorm without a light source.
The Legacy
Major changes occurred in commercial airline safety after the hijacking. Metal detectors were added to many airports by the airlines and several new safety rules were brought in by the Federal Aviation Administration. A year after the hijacking all Boeing 727 were required to install a device known as the “Cooper Vane” which prevents the rear stairway from being lowered during flight.
Cooper also proved an inspiration in other ways. Four months after his hijacking Richard McCoy, Jnr. boarded a United Airlines flight and demanded four parachutes and $500,000. He was caught and later killed after escaping from prison. In 1980, a Mr. Tripp boarded the exact same flight as Cooper and demanded four parachutes and $100,000. A quick thinking flight attendant slipped three Valiums into his drink and he eventually lowered his demands to three cheeseburgers and a rental car. As he left the plane Tripp was jumped by three FBI agents and his briefcase was found to contain a jacket instead of a bomb. Whilst on probation for the hijacking he again attempted to hijack the exact same plane armed with a shoebox and demanded to be flown to Afghanistan. He was shot by the FBI after a three hour stand-off.
There are several theories as to what happened to Cooper but the FBI has always stressed that they believe he jumped from the plane but did not survive the descent. However the FBI have never closed the case and as recently as 2007 issued a press release containing never before seen information and details in the hope of receiving useful information as to Cooper’s true identity.
