Posted
on November 24, 2015
This
is very weird for me:
A
man the media named D.B. Cooper skyjacked an airliner in order to
extort $200,000 in ransom, and he might have died when he parachuted
away with the money, but he may have gotten away with it. All
of that's unusual (thank goodness), and the case is singular because
it is the ONLY unsolved air piracy in American history. But the thing
that is so weird for me is that there are Cooper fans who gather
together once a year to talk about the unsolved case.
I
shudder at the thought of celebrating someone who hijacks a plane!
Although,
if you were going to celebrate a skyjacker, D.B. Cooper would be the
right one, because he was calm, polite, and he never hurt anyone.
Still,
he threatened everyone with a bomb (if it really was a bomb).
At
the time of the hijacking, on this date in 1971, there had been no
9-11, there had been no flying planes into buildings and killing
everyone on board. At the time, officials generally cooperated with
hijackers at least long enough to save the passengers' lives and
hopefully the lives of the flight crew as well.
 |
| This is the sketch of "Cooper" created from descriptions by eyewitnesses. |
Here's
what happened (briefly stated): a man dressed in a business suit and
calling himself Dan Cooper bought an airplane ticket at the Portland,
Oregon, Airport; he bought a one-way ticket to the nearby city of
Seattle, Washington, just a 30-minute flight. When in the air, the
man informed a flight attendant that he had a bomb and wanted
$200,000 in “negotiable American currency”; he also demanded four
parachutes (two primary and two reserve) and food for the flight
crew.
The
airplane circled the Seattle and Tacoma area while the FBI got
together the parachutes and ransom money. Then it landed at the
Seattle-Tacoma Airport, and Cooper released the passengers and most
of the flight crew when he got the parachutes and the money. The
plane was refueled. Cooper told the pilots that, when they took off
again, they would fly toward Mexico City, with a refueling stop in
Reno, Nevada. He made some really specific demands about flying –
wing flaps lowered, landing gear in takeoff and landing position,
certain speed and altitude, and so on.
Shortly after takeoff, Cooper told the flight attendant to join the pilots in the cockpit and stay there with the door closed. And shortly after that, the flight crew saw from warning lights that the aircraft's rear exit door was open and its staircase had been extended. A few minutes after that, the crew noticed a sudden upward movement from the airplane's tail section. They wondered if Cooper had jumped out already.
Shortly after takeoff, Cooper told the flight attendant to join the pilots in the cockpit and stay there with the door closed. And shortly after that, the flight crew saw from warning lights that the aircraft's rear exit door was open and its staircase had been extended. A few minutes after that, the crew noticed a sudden upward movement from the airplane's tail section. They wondered if Cooper had jumped out already.
About
two hours later, the airliner finally landed in Reno. Of course FBI
agents, state troopers, Reno police, and sheriff deputies surrounded
the jet and then searched the plane. They were able to confirm that
Cooper was indeed gone. Two of the parachutes and a black clip-on tie
were left behind.
Of
course officials studied the flight path from Seattle toward Reno and
began a manhunt to find and arrest Cooper, if he survived his jump.
And, as you can imagine, they concentrated their efforts over the
spot that the airliner was when the crew felt that tail-section dip.
However, the FBI never found Cooper or his body, and they never found
the parachute. Also, they didn't find the money (which had been
carefully photographed before it was turned over to the hijacker, so
that they would be able to track serial numbers if he ever spent the
money).
 |
| The money that was found still had intact rubber bands, but the money itself was pretty bedraggled! |
That
is, they didn't find the money THEN. Nine years later, in 1980, a
young boy was digging a fire pit in a sand bar. He uncovered three
bundles of twenty-dollar bills, with their rubber bands still intact.
The serial numbers matched the some of the money that was given to
Cooper! The money ($5,800) was not found anywhere along the flight of
the plane, but of course could have been carried by Cooper or someone
else and then buried, or it could have washed down a river before
being buried in the sand by natural processes.
But
despite years of investigation, enlisting the public's help, quite a
few fingerprints found on the tie clip and unused parachute, and all
the info given from passengers and especially flight crew, including
sketches from the sketch artist – we still don't know who Dan
Cooper really was, and we don't know what happened to him.
Oh,
and why do we call Dan Cooper (not his real name) “D.B. Cooper”?
It was a mistake made by a hurried reporter – but the name stuck in
the public's mind. And since one alias is as good as another, D.B.
Cooper it shall remain, unless we ever do discover the man's real
identity.
Find
out more, including all the details that people still debate, at
Citizen Sleuths.
Because
Cooper hijacked the plane and jumped on the day before Thanksgiving,
every year the Saturday after Thanksgiving is the D.B. Cooper
Festival. And it is held in the Ariel Store in Ariel, Washington,
because this spacious tavern was sort of HQ for the gigantic
ground search for Cooper.
I
gather that the FBI still maintains and active case file on the
skyjacking. And it is now 60 volumes!!
This air pirate -- who, again, endangered the lives of 42 people and caused a lot of inconvenience and expensive investigations for many, many more people -- has somehow created a cult following. There have been songs, books and comic books, movies, and Cooper-themed promotions in restaurants, bowling alleys, and more...
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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