D.B. Cooper is the name popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the airspace between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington on November 24, 1971. He extorted $200,000 in ransom and parachuted out of the airliner to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and an exhaustive (and ongoing) FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or positively identified. To date, the case remains the only unsolved airline hijacking in American aviation history.
The event began mid-afternoon, November 24, 1971, at Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon. A man carrying a black attaché case approached the flight counter of Northwest Orient Airlines. He identified himself as "Dan Cooper" and purchased a one-way ticket on flight #305, a 30 minute trip to Seattle, Washington.
Cooper boarded the aircraft, a Boeing 727 and took seat 18C in the rear of the passenger cabin. He lit a cigarette and ordered a bourbon and 7-Up. On-board eyewitnesses recalled a man in his mid-forties, between 5 and 6 feet tall. He wore a black lightweight raincoat, loafers, a dark suit, a neatly pressed white collared shirt, a black necktie, and a mother of pearl tie pin.
Flight #305, took off on schedule at 2:50, local time. Sometime during the flight, Cooper passed a note to Florence Schaffner, the flight attendant situated nearest to him in a jump seat attached to the aft stair door. The note 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."
Schaffner did as requested, then quietly asked to see the bomb. Cooper cracked open his briefcase long enough for her to glimpse eight red cylinders attached to wires coated with red insulation, and a large cylindrical battery. After closing the case he dictated his demands: "I want $200,000 in unmarked 20-dollar bills. I want two back parachutes and two front parachutes. When we land, I want a fuel truck ready to refuel. No funny stuff or I’ll do the job." Cooper then ordered Schaffner to convey his instructions to the cockpit. When she returned, he was wearing dark sunglasses.
FBI agents assembled the ransom money from several Seattle-area banks, and made a photograph of each bill. Seattle police obtained the parachutes from a local skydiving school.
Cooper was informed that his demands had been met, and the aircraft landed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport at 5:45. Cooper instructed the pilot to taxi the jet to an isolated, brightly-lit section of the tarmac and extinguish lights in the cabin to deter police snipers.
During refueling, Cooper outlined his flight plan to the crew: a southeast course toward Mexico City, at the minimum air speed possible without stalling the aircraft, and a maximum 10,000 foot altitude. To ensure a minimum speed, he specified that the landing gear remain down, in the takeoff/landing position, and the wing flaps be lowered 15 degrees. To ensure a low altitude, he ordered that the cabin remain unpressurized.
Finally, Cooper allowed the passengers off the plane, and directed the crew to take off with the rear door open and the rear stairs down. Northwest Airline's home office told the crew that it was unsafe to take off with the aft staircase down. Cooper countered that it was indeed safe, but he would not argue the point; he would lower it himself once they were airborne.
At 7:40the 727 took off with only Cooper, the pilot, flight attendant, copilot and flight engineer aboard. Cooper told the crew to go to the cockpit and remain there with the door closed. Twenty minutes later a warning light flashed in the cockpit, indicating that the rear stair apparatus at the back of the plane had been activated. The crew noticed a subjective change of air pressure, indicating that the aft door was open.
At approximately 8:13, the aircraft's tail section sustained a sudden upward movement, significant enough to require trimming to bring the plane back to level flight. At approximately 10:15, the pilot landed with the aft stair still deployed, at Reno Airport. FBI agents, state troopers, sheriff's deputies, and Reno police surrounded the jet, as it had not yet been determined with certainty that Cooper was no longer aboard; but an armed search quickly confirmed that he was gone.
No trace of Cooper, or any of the equipment presumed to have left the aircraft with him, was found.
In 1980, an eight-year-old boy, vacationing with his family on the Columbia River uncovered three packets of the ransom cash, significantly disintegrated but still bundled in rubber bands. FBI technicians confirmed that the money was indeed a portion of the ransom, two packets of 100 bills each and a third packet of 90, all arranged in the same order as when given to Cooper. To this day, this is the only trace of D.B. Cooper’s fate.