On a rainy November evening in 1971, a quiet man boarded a passenger plane in Oregon, hijacked it with a briefcase bomb, and parachuted into the stormy night with $200,000 in cash.
More than five decades later, investigators still do not know who he really was or if he survived the dangerous leap into the wilderness.
What We Know About the Hijacking
On November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper purchased a one-way ticket on Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington. Shortly after takeoff, he handed a flight attendant a handwritten note stating that he had a bomb in his briefcase. He quietly demanded $200,000 in negotiable twenty-dollar bills and four parachutes.
When the airplane landed in Seattle, Cooper exchanged thirty-six passengers for the cash and parachutes. He allowed all passengers and two crew members to leave safely, keeping only a small crew to fly the aircraft. He then ordered the pilots to fly toward Reno, Nevada, keeping the airplane at a low altitude and slow flying speed.
At approximately 8:13 p.m., while the plane was flying through a heavy thunderstorm over the rugged wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, the flight crew noticed a sudden shift in air pressure. Cooper had lowered the airplane's rear aft stairs and parachuted into the freezing darkness. He vanished into the rain, taking the money with him.
Federal investigators immediately launched one of the most extensive manhunts in American history across Washington State, but they found no trace of Cooper, his gear, or the ransom money. The only confirmed physical breakthrough came in 1980, when a young boy found a decaying bundle of $5,800 of the marked ransom money buried along the Columbia River.
The Theories
Theory 1: He died during the jump. Many FBI investigators strongly suspect Cooper did not survive his flight into the night. The outdoor temperature at 10,000 feet was below freezing, winds were exceeding 100 miles per hour, and Cooper jumped into dense mountain forest wearing only a lightweight trench coat, suit, and dress shoes.
Theory 2: He was an experienced skydiver who escaped. Other researchers argue that Cooper survived the jump and successfully escaped into normal life. Supporters of this idea point out his calm behavior, his knowledge of the Boeing 727 aircraft, and his specific request for military-style parachutes as evidence of skydiving or military training.
Theory 3: He lost the cash during the drop. The discovery of the damaged bills at Tina Bar in 1980 led some experts to theorize that Cooper landed safely but lost his bag of cash during the turbulent jump or while trying to navigate the swollen rivers of the wilderness.
What Remains Unanswered
Despite decades of extensive scientific testing, thousands of witness interviews, and over 1,000 suspect files, the FBI officially suspended its active investigation in 2016 without identifying the suspect. To this day, the true identity of Dan Cooper, his ultimate fate in the freezing woods, and the location of the remaining $194,200 remain completely unknown.
The D.B. Cooper skyjacking remains the only unsolved case of commercial piracy in global aviation history. Whether he perished in the wilderness or pulled off the ultimate escape, his mysterious jump into the dark night continues to fascinate historians and mystery lovers around the world.
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