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Few stories in the realm of unsolved mysteries are as bizarre and audacious as the D.B. Cooper case. More than half a century has gone by since the day this unidentified man shocked the world by performing a skyjacking.
This case is about a composed and well-dressed man who flew from Portland to Seattle on November 24, 1971. He introduced himself as Dan Cooper, but the media reported his name as D.B. Cooper, which would later become a widely discussed name.
A ransom demand, a mid-air parachute jump, and a clean disappearance into the night were all part of the shocking and meticulously planned hijacking. This case was also featured on Unsolved Mysteries, as everyone wanted to explore what the man demanded.
So, he became known as D.B. Cooper, and once he got on the plane, this man gave a note to one of the flight attendants. In that note, he said he had a bomb in his briefcase, and he wanted $200,000 in cash and four parachutes.
The crazy part? He stayed super calm the whole time, and he made sure the passengers didn’t panic, and they had no idea what was really going on. When the plane landed in Seattle, the authorities gave him the money and parachutes just like he asked.
Then he let all the passengers go. But mid-flight, over a forested area in Washington State, he opened the door and jumped out with a parachute and disappeared. No one ever found out where he landed, if he survived, or who he really was.
Curious to know more details on this case? Keep reading below
Unsolved Mysteries featured a hijacking like no other: What happened on flight 305?
The hijacking of Northwest Orient Flight 305 wasn’t just daring, it was unique. Cooper boarded the Boeing 727 with only a briefcase. Shortly after takeoff, he revealed to a flight attendant that he had a bomb and calmly stated his demands.
Per the official website of Unsolved Mysteries, Flight attendant Florence Schaffner said:
"He handed me a note and he kept looking at me. And I just ignored him the first time he looked at me and then he said, ‘I want you to read the note.’ "
She continued:
"It was printed, 'Miss, I have a bomb in my briefcase. I want you to sit beside me. We were very, very scared to death. All of us were. I was thinking about dying. That’s all I thought..."
What stood out was his calm, polite demeanor. He wasn’t aggressive or panicked. He knew exactly what he wanted, and he gave clear instructions to the flight crew. Once the flight landed in Seattle, Cooper’s plan moved forward as ransom money and parachutes were delivered, the passengers were allowed to leave safely, and only the flight crew stayed on board with him.
As explained in Unsolved Mysteries, the passengers were all out and then somewhere above the thick forests near the Lewis River, Cooper opened the plane’s rear stairway and jumped into the darkness.
It was a dangerous move. The weather was rough, the ground below was dense and remote, and D.B. Cooper wasn’t wearing proper survival gear. But he vanished along with the money. In 1980, a small portion of the cash was found buried near the Columbia River, but there was no sign of Cooper himself.
The unsolved case of D.B. Cooper resulted in theories and clues about D.B. Cooper
Over several decades, the FBI interviewed many suspects as part of their extensive NORJAK (Northwest Hijacking) investigation. Given his familiarity with geography and flight operations, many assumed Cooper had military or aviation training.
He was described as a white man in his forties who wore a business suit and black tie. He left a clip-on tie behind, from which DNA was later recovered, but it was never linked to a particular individual.
A plastic sign from the aircraft was found in the woods in 1978. The marked cash discovered in 1980 suggested that Cooper might not have made it far, or at least dropped some of the money. There were also unusual particles found on his tie, which hinted he might’ve worked in a metal or chemical-related job, maybe even in a company like Boeing.
Despite dozens of theories, including one suspect named Richard McCoy, who tried a similar hijacking months later, no one has ever been confirmed as D.B. Cooper. The FBI closed the case in 2016, lacking new evidence. But this case gained immense attention as it was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, and lived through books and documentaries.
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