In 1971, a man known only as D.B. Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 traveling from Portland to Seattle. On November 24, he boarded the plane under the alias Dan Cooper, carrying a briefcase and a paper bag. Mid-flight, he passed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner, claiming he had a bomb and demanding $200,000 in cash, four parachutes, and a refueling truck upon landing in Seattle. He showed her the contents of his briefcase, which appeared to contain a bomb-like device with wires and red sticks.Cooper’s demands were met by authorities, who provided the money in $20 bills and the parachutes.
After landing in Seattle, he released the 36 passengers but kept the crew onboard. He instructed the pilots to fly to Mexico City at a low altitude, slow speed, and with the landing gear down and flaps at 15 degrees. Somewhere over southwestern Washington, Cooper lowered the rear airstair of the plane, jumped out with the money and two parachutes, and vanished into the night.Despite an extensive FBI investigation, no conclusive evidence of Cooper’s identity or fate has ever been found. The case remains the only unsolved air piracy incident in U.S. history. In 1980, a boy found $5,800 of the ransom money in $20 bills along the Columbia River, but Cooper himself was never located. Theories range from him dying in the jump to escaping and living under a new identity. The mystery endures, fueling countless books, documentaries, and speculation.
