D.B. Cooper

Sketch of DB Cooper

On 24 November 1971, a passenger sitting alone in seat 18C on Flight 305 from Portland, OR to Seattle, WA passed a note to Florence Schaffner, a flight attendant on board that Northwest Orient airline.  Schaffner, at first dismissing the note as another attempt by a passenger to court her, reluctantly read it after the passengers insistence.  The note stated he had a bomb and would blow up the plane unless he received $200,000 in  cash, 4 parachutes and the flight crews cooperation.  Scaffner looked into the mans small black suitcase and saw what appeared to be red cylinders, battery and wires.

This mysterious passenger, described as a bourbon drinking, chain smoking, middle aged man, 5’ 10 to 6’ 0” tall, 180 pounds, wearing sunglasses and a dark suit, purchased his ticket under the name “Dan Cooper”.  Mistakenly called “DB Cooper” by a reporter which continued to be used extensively in the press, DB Cooper would cement his place in history as one of the most celebrated outlaws who evaded justice by masterminding the only unsolved U.S. aircraft hijacking.

After reading the demands, Schaffner took the note to Captain William Scott, who then contacted Northwest Orient to report the incident.  Northwest Orient agreed to the demands and stated the money would be available upon landing in Seattle.

Upon landing, the 36 passengers on board departed the aircraft and a courier presented Tina Mucklow, another flight attendant, with the $200,000 and parachutes at the foot of the aircraft stairs.  After the airplane was refueled, DB Cooper demanded to be flown to Mexico City.  Informed by the Captain that the plane would have to be refueled again before arriving in Mexico City, Dan Cooper agreed to land in Reno for refueling for the first leg of the trip.

A final request was made by DB Cooper to have the plane’s rear door opened and the stairwell lowered.  The plane took off for Reno and according to Captain Scott, the aircraft never exceeded 10,000 feet and traveled around 200 MPH.

Evidence: Abandoned tie and recovered money

Once in the air, DB Cooper told Mucklow to go to the front of the aircraft and to close the curtains between First Class and coach.  She was to stay there for the remainder of the trip.

Upon landing in Reno, attempts were made to contact DB Cooper through the public address system to obtain further instructions.  There was no response.  Upon inspection of the plane, only Cooper’s tie and two parachutes remained.  DB Cooper, the money and suitcase were gone.

It wasn’t until February, 1980 that new evidence was presented when a 8 year old Brian Ingram found $5,880 in deteriorating $20 bills on the banks of the Columbia River.

FBI Special Agent Larry Carr, who is now investigating this case, thinks Dan Cooper most likely did not survive the jump from the plane, but still wants to know for sure.  Carr mentioned that Dan Cooper’s jump from the plane was an extremely dangerous thing to do.  It was a rainy night with poor visibility.  DB Cooper would have encountered 200 MPH headwinds upon jumping.  Not only was he not wearing the appropriate clothing to fight off the elements (loafers and a trench coat), but the reserve chute he used was a training chute and sewn shut.

Since 24 November 1971, the FBI has investigated over 1,000 “persons of interest” in this case,  And despite all the deathbed confessions and dead end leads, the case is no closer to being solved as it was almost 40 years ago.

References:  Skyjacker at Large, DB Cooper, The DB Cooper Hijacking,  DB Cooper on Wiki
DB Cooper Loot Serial Number Checker

Jim H was born and raised in Naples, Italy. He created this website in December 2009 because of his fondness for historical mysteries. Since creating the website, Historic Mysteries has grown incredibly fast and over 200 mysteries are now documented on this site. Thank you for visiting and please bookmark this site.

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