The Lost Hijacker: D.b. Cooper

D.B. Cooper, or Dan Cooper by alias, is one of the many mysteries never solved. He took a one-way flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. During this trip, he gave a flight attendant his pre-typed note, which described his intention to blow up the plane with a bomb in his briefcase unless $200,000 was given to him in 20-dollar bills cash. After the airplane took off from the Seattle airport, he told the pilot to fly to Mexico. Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, he jumped using four parachutes. Conditions for a parachute jump where bad: it was night, stormy; there was dense cloud cover, wind was high, and he landed in the middle of wilderness. Since that fateful night, he was never seen or heard from again. A parachute as well as over $5,000 in cash was found, but the other $195,000 and the other three parachutes are missing. The two concluding possibilities are that he either died jumping from the plane, or got away with the crime leaving behind the $5,000 and the parachute (on purpose or unintentionally). Either way, the case has been left unsolved for over three decades and recently, the FBI is trying to use the latest DNA technology and other tools to find the answer.

Figure 1: Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 much like the one D.B. Cooper jumped out of.

The Reaction

The FBI began searching for the man and once the story broke, people put forth many theories and several people came forward claiming to be the man. One man even interviewed a person claiming to be the man, but several inconsistencies showed up proving this to be a hoax. One such piece of evidence was that the three twenty-dollar bills displayed had superimposed serial numbers. While this proved to be a false lead, one piece of evidence did show up. $5,800 of the $200,000 was found by 8-year old Brian Ingram during a vacation trip. This gives the general location where D.B. Cooper landed, but since the area is wilderness, the evidence (body, other three parachutes, and rest of money) could have been covered over by years of natural factors such as wind, rain, fire, dirt, and landslides.

Figure 2: D.B. Cooper from drawing based on description given by flight attendants.

Recent

In 2007, The FBI decided to reopen the case (it was never closed, but a stronger effort was recently brought forth) because they decided new technology like DNA testing (DNA was found on D.B. Cooper's tie), electronic information, digital photography, surveillance, and all that has come with the age of technology in the 21st century. This mystery has puzzled not only the agents working on the case, but the people who read and hear about it. There is a high chance that the truth will be found, but then again, there was a high chance that this never would have happened. Until this truth is revealed, it is up to the reader to decide whether they think D.B. Cooper, whoever that is, died on the jump or is living the good life today. Since the incident occurred in 1971 and the man was already in his forties, he would be in his seventies today. If the FBI does not find the answer today, the truth may die with D.B. Cooper and the case would remain a mystery forever.