Where In The World Is D.B. Cooper?

On November 24th, 1971, a middle-aged man carrying a briefcase walked into Portland International Airport and purchased a one-way ticket to Seattle, Washington.

The man identified himself as Dan Cooper and boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 305 (a Boeing 727) along with 36 other passengers and 6 crew members.

Once onboard, Cooper sat in the middle seat of the last row on the right-side of the cabin, ordered a drink and lit up a cigarette. Shortly after take-off, Cooper turned around and handed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner, who was sitting in the jump seat directly behind Cooper.

The note said, “Miss – I have a bomb here and I would like you to sit by me”. At that point, Schaffner sat down by Cooper as instructed and quietly asked to see the bomb. Cooper then opened his briefcase to reveal eight sticks of dynamite.

At this point, Cooper made his demands to Schaffner, which she wrote down and relayed to the crew members in the cockpit. His demands were:

“I want $200,000 by 5:00PM in cash. Put it in a knapsack. I want two back parachutes and two front parachutes. When we land in Seattle, I want a fuel truck ready to refuel. No funny stuff, or I’ll do the job.”

With Schaffner in the cockpit, flight attendant Tina Mucklow sat next to Cooper and used a telephone in the rear of the cabin to act as an intermediary between Cooper and the flight crew in the cockpit.

For the next 90 minutes, Flight 305 maintained a holding pattern near Seattle while local and Federal authorities procured the ransom.

Seattle-First National Bank supplied the cash in the form of 10,000 $20 bills

Seattle Sky Sports supplied the chutes

At 5:45PM, more than 2 hours after the scheduled arrival time, Flight 305 touched down at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport and was taxied to a remote section of the tarmac. Once the flight came to a stop, the ransom and the parachutes were handed over to Mucklow who then handed them to Cooper. At that point Cooper allowed two of the flight attendants and the passengers to disembark the aircraft.

With the ransom paid and only 4 crew members remaining on board, Cooper told Mucklow to inform the captain that he wanted to fly to Mexico City. He also gave the following demands:

• Fly with the landing gear down
• The flaps at 15 degrees
• Fly below 10,000 feet
• Lights in the cabin to be switched off
• The aft stairway in the underbelly of the fuselage was to remain open extended

A non-stop flight was not possible, so they negotiated with Cooper to stop in Reno, Nevada to refuel. It was also not possible to depart with the aft staircase open and extended, so Cooper agreed to having it closed with the condition that Mucklow was to remain by his side and show him how to open it once the plane was airborne.

Flight 305 was back in the air by 7:36PM. About 5 minutes after take-off, Cooper told Mucklow to head to the cock-pit and he was to remain undisturbed for the remainder of the flight. 3 hours later, Flight 305 arrive safely in Reno, Nevada and Cooper was no longer on the plane, the aft staircase was opened and slightly damaged during landing.

Last communication with the hijacker occurred at approximately 8:05PM when the crew asked Cooper if there was anything they could do for him, to which Cooper said no. 5 to 10 minutes after this, the crew reported a strong vibration of the aircraft, which is believed to be when Cooper opened the aft staircase and jumped from the plane. This would put Cooper’s jump location at approximately 25 miles north of Portland. 

The search for Cooper was complicated by low temperatures, inclement weather that lasted for days, and a dense wilderness that made finding him like finding a needle in a haystack. Authorities never found Cooper.

Evidence:

Cooper left behind the following:

• A black clip-on tie. With the tie clip fastened to the left side of the tie, perhaps indicating that Cooper was left handed
• Eight cigarette butts (these were later lost and unable to be used for DNA sampling)
• Two of the four parachutes

Description:

Cooper’s description is as follows:

• Sex: Male
• Race: White/Caucasian (possibly Native American/Latino)
• Complexion: Dark/Olive
• Age: 35-50
• Height: 5’9” – 6’
• Weight: 150-190 lbs
• Hair: Black/Dark Brown
• Eyes: Brown
• Clothes: Dark suit, white shirt, black tie, dark shoes, sunglasses (worn only after boarding)

Money Serial Numbers:

The Seattle-First National Bank held a $250,000 cash deposit aside in the event of a ransom and had all of the serial numbers documented just in case. These were released to financial institutions, government agencies, and the general public. Everyone was advised to check their $20 bills for the serial numbers. No one found any matching bills until nearly a decade later on February 10, 1980

A young boy playing in the sand at Tina Bar along the Columbia River found three bundles of cash with matching serial numbers to the ransom that Cooper collected, which totaled to around $5900. The location of the money from the estimated drop-zone was around 16 miles. It is difficult to explain how 3 separate independent bundles of cash all ended up in the same place and how they ended up so far away from the estimated drop zone and how the rubber bands which held the money together were still intact.

Despite many search efforts, there is still no sign of the rest of the money

Did Cooper Survive the jump?

When he jumped from the plane, he leaped into complete darkness and into a frigid rainstorm with intense winds from a plane that was traveling at about 200 mph at 10,000 feet. He was not dressed for the cold weather that he would have had to endure.

He could not see the ground through the multiple layers of cloud coverage and the parachute that he selected was non-steerable, so he could not have had much success with coordination with a potential accomplice on the ground.

No missing persons reports were made to authorities that matched the description of Cooper, indicating that he possibly survived the jump and carried on with his life

Motives

When asked about his motives (by Tina Mucklow), Cooper stated “It’s not because I have a grudge towards your airline, it’s just because I have a grudge”. He further clarified this by saying that Flight 305, “just happened to be in the right place at the right time”

Suspects

Robert Rackstraw

• Had a military background
• Experience with explosives
• Had a criminal record
• Had an uncle named John Cooper who was a skydiving enthusiast 
• Discharged from the military only months before the hijacking which could explain a motive
• Had light colored eyes, which is conflicting with witness testimony
• Was only 28 years old at the time of the hijacking. Cooper appeared to be in his mid-40’s

Richard McCoy Jr.

• He hijacked and parachuted from a Boeing 727 in 1972 similar to Cooper, so many people believed that it must be the same person that did both hijackings.
• Was a demolitions expert and a helicopter pilot in the military
• Used a fake grenade
• Used handwritten notes to issue his demands
• Survived the jump from his hijacking and evaded authorities for 2 days before being caught and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
• Never denied being DB Cooper
• He was only 29 years old during the time of the hijacking
• He failed to reclaim a note that was later used as evidence against him. Cooper did not make this mistake.
• All flight attendants were quite certain that McCoy was not DB Cooper
• More likely to be a copycat after hearing DB Cooper story in the news

Kenneth Christiansen

• Served as a paratrooper in WWII
• Worked for Northwest Airlines before and after the hijacking as a mechanic and flight attendant 
• He was 45 years old at the time of the hijacking
• He was left-handed (Cooper used his left hand to interact with his briefcase, and tie clasp was applied from the left on his tie)
• He told his brother that he had a big secret shortly before he died
• He had over $200,000 in his bank accounts that was discovered by his family after his death
• Florence Schaffner stated that photographs of Christiansen bore a strong resemblance to Cooper
• He did not match the physical description of Cooper. He was both shorter and lighter
• While Schaffner remarked about the resemblance to Cooper, she also remarked that Cooper had more hair.
• The sums of money could be explained by sales of land that he owned.

Duane Weber

• Told his wife shortly before his death that he was Dan Cooper
• His widow said that he allegedly sustained a knee injury after jumping from a plane
• Found a bank bag similar to the one that contained Cooper’s ransom
• A year before the money was discovered at Tina Bar, Weber reportedly visited there
• He had a military background
• He had a criminal background
• Matched the physical description
• He was 47 years old in 1971
• Weber’s fingerprints did not match any of the 66 unidentified prints lifted from the seat occupied by Cooper on Flight 305 and other nearby surfaces
• His DNA did not match a sample of DNA found on the tie clasp

William J Smith

• Served in the Navy during WWII
• Had parachuting experience
• Was 43 years old in 1971
• Had dark brown eyes and matched the physical description
• Worked as a yardmaster for a railroad company for most of his life, but in 1970 the company filed for bankruptcy and Smith lost his pension which might suggest a motive. He might have had a grudge against the airline industry for their role in bringing down the railway transportation industry
• Spent his entire life in the northeastern US, he would have likely been unfamiliar with the territory, which Cooper appeared to be someone that was familiar
• The tie that Cooper left behind was examined with an electron microscope which discovered several metallic particles such as pure titanium, which was pretty rare in 1917. This might suggest that Cooper worked in a chemical or metallurgical facility or a railyard.