D.B. Cooper

D. B. Cooper is a media epithet for an unidentified man who hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft operated by Northwest Orient Airlines, in United States airspace on November 24, 1971. During the flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, the hijacker told a flight attendant he was armed with a bomb, demanded $200,000 in ransom (), and requested four parachutes upon landing in Seattle. After releasing the passengers in Seattle, the hijacker instructed the flight crew to refuel the aircraft and begin a second flight to Mexico City, with a refueling stop in Reno, Nevada. About 30 minutes after taking off from Seattle, the hijacker opened the aircraft's aft door, deployed the staircase, and parachuted into the night over southwestern Washington. The hijacker was never identified, apprehended, or found.

In 1980, a small portion of the ransom money was found along the banks of the Columbia River. The discovery of the money renewed public interest in the mystery, but yielded no additional information about the hijacker's identity or fate, and the remaining money was never recovered. The hijacker identified himself as Dan Cooper, but because of a reporter's mistake, he became known as "D. B. Cooper".

For 45 years after the hijacking, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) maintained an active investigation and built an extensive case file, but ultimately did not reach any definitive conclusions. The crime remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in the history of commercial aviation. The FBI speculates Cooper did not survive his jump, for several reasons: The inclement weather on the night of the hijacking, Cooper's lack of proper skydiving equipment, his drop zone was a heavily wooded area, Cooper's apparent lack of detailed knowledge of his landing area, and the disappearance of the remaining ransom money, suggesting it was never spent. In July 2016, the FBI officially suspended active investigation of the NORJAK (Northwest hijacking) case, although reporters, enthusiasts, professional investigators, and amateur sleuths continue to pursue numerous theories for Cooper's identity, success, and fate.

Cooper's hijacking—and several imitators in the following year—led to immediate and major changes for commercial aviation and stricter airport security measures. Metal detectors were installed, baggage inspection became mandatory, and passengers who paid cash for tickets on the day of departure were selected for additional scrutiny. Boeing 727s were retrofitted with eponymous "Cooper vanes", specifically designed to prevent the aft staircase from being lowered in-flight. By 1973, aircraft hijacking incidents had decreased as the new security measures successfully dissuaded would-be hijackers whose only motive was money.

Hijacking

On Thanksgiving Eve, November 24, 1971, a man carrying a black attaché case approached the flight counter of Northwest Orient Airlines at Portland International Airport. Using cash, the man bought a one-way ticket on , a thirty-minute trip north to "Sea-Tac" (Seattle–Tacoma International Airport). On his ticket, the man listed his name as "Dan Cooper". Eyewitnesses described Cooper as a white male in his mid-40s, with dark hair and brown eyes, wearing a black or brown business suit, a white shirt and a thin, black tie, a black raincoat, and brown shoes. Carrying a briefcase and a brown paper bag, Cooper boarded Flight 305, a (FAA registration N467US). Cooper took seat 18-E in the last row, and ordered a drink: Bourbon and 7-Up.

With a crew of six and 37 passengers aboard, Flight 305 left Portland on-schedule at 2:50 pm PST. Shortly after takeoff, Cooper handed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner, sitting in the jump seat directly behind Cooper. Assuming the note was a lonely businessman's phone number, Schaffner dropped the note unopened into her purse. Cooper then leaned toward her and whispered, "Miss, you'd better look at that note. I have a bomb."

Schaffner opened the note. In neat, all-capital letters printed with a felt-tip pen, Cooper had written, "Miss—I have a bomb in my briefcase and want you to sit by me." Schaffner returned the note to Cooper, sat down as Cooper requested, and quietly asked to see the bomb. Cooper opened his briefcase, and Schaffner saw two rows of four red cylinders she assumed was dynamite. Attached to the cylinders were a wire and a large, cylindrical battery.

Cooper closed the briefcase, and told Schaffner his demands. Schaffner wrote a note with Cooper's demands, carried the note to the cockpit, and informed the flight crew of the situation. Captain Scott directed Schaffner to remain in the cockpit for the remainder of the flight and take notes of events as they unfolded. Scott then contacted Northwest flight operations in Minnesota, and relayed the hijacker's demands: " ooperrequests $200,000 in a knapsack by 5:00 pm. He wants two front parachutes, two back parachutes. He wants the money in negotiable American currency."
With Schaffner in the cockpit, flight attendant Tina Mucklow sat next to Cooper to act as a liaison between Cooper and the flight crew in the cockpit. Cooper then made additional demands - upon landing in Seattle, the fuel trucks must meet the plane and all passengers must remain seated while Mucklow brought the money aboard. After he had the money, said Cooper, he would release the passengers. The last items brought aboard would be the four parachutes.

Captain William A. Scott informed Seattle–Tacoma Airport air traffic control (ATC) of the situation, and Sea-Tac ATC contacted local police and the FBI. The passengers were told their arrival in Seattle would be delayed because of a "minor mechanical difficulty". Donald Nyrop, the president of Northwest Orient, authorized payment of the ransom and ordered all employees to cooperate with the hijacker and comply with his demands. For approximately two hours, Flight 305 circled Puget Sound to give Seattle police and the FBI sufficient time to assemble Cooper's ransom money and parachutes, and to mobilize emergency personnel.

During the flight from Portland to Seattle, Cooper demanded flight attendant Mucklow remain by his side at all times. Mucklow said Cooper appeared familiar with the local terrain; while looking out the window, Cooper remarked, "Looks like Tacoma down there", as the aircraft flew above it. Cooper also correctly noted McChord Air Force Base was only a 20-minute drive from Sea-Tac Airport. Mucklow later described the hijacker's demeanor: " ooperwas not nervous. He seemed rather nice and he was not cruel or nasty."

While the plane circled Seattle, Mucklow chatted with Cooper and asked why he picked Northwest Airlines to hijack. Cooper replied, "It's not because I have a grudge against your airlines, it's just because I have a grudge." Cooper then asked where Mucklow was from, and Mucklow said she was originally from Pennsylvania, but was living in Minneapolis at the time. Minnesota was very nice country, Cooper responded. Mucklow then asked Cooper where he was from, but he became upset and refused to answer. Cooper then asked Mucklow if she smoked and offered her a cigarette. Mucklow said she had quit, but accepted the cigarette from Cooper.

FBI records note Cooper briefly spoke to an unidentified passenger while the plane maintained its holding pattern over Seattle. In his interview with FBI agents, passenger George Labissoniere said he visited the restroom directly behind Cooper on several occasions. After one restroom visit, Labissoniere said the path to his seat was blocked by a passenger wearing a cowboy hat, questioning Mucklow about the alleged mechanical issue with the aircraft. Labissoniere said Cooper was initially amused by the interaction, then became irritated and told the man to return to his seat, but "the cowboy" ignored Cooper and continued to question Mucklow. Labissoniere claimed he eventually persuaded "the cowboy" to return to his seat.

Mucklow's version of the interaction differed from Labissoniere's. Mucklow said a passenger approached her, and asked for a sports magazine to read because he was bored. Mucklow and the passenger moved to an area directly behind Cooper, where the passenger and she looked for magazines. The passenger took a copy of ''The New Yorker'' and returned to his seat. When Mucklow returned to sit with Cooper, he said, "If that is a sky marshal, I don't want any more of that." Despite his brief interaction with Cooper, "the cowboy" was not interviewed by the FBI and was never identified.

FBI agents used several banks in the Seattle area to assemble the ransom. The money—10,000 unmarked $20 bills, most of which had serial numbers beginning with "L" (indicating issuance by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)—was photographed on microfilm by the FBI. Cooper rejected the military-issue parachutes offered by McChord AFB personnel, and demanded four civilian parachutes with manually operated ripcords. Seattle police obtained the two front (reserve) parachutes from a local skydiving school and the two back (main) parachutes from a local stunt pilot.

Passengers released

Around 5:24 PST, Captain Scott was informed the parachutes had been delivered to the airport, and notified Cooper they would soon be landing. At 5:46 PST, Flight 305 landed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport. Scott asked Cooper's permission—and Cooper agreed—to park the aircraft on a partially-lit runway, away from the main terminal. Cooper demanded only one representative of the airline could approach the plane with the parachutes and money, and the only entrance and exit would be through the aircraft's front door via the mobile air stairs. Northwest Orient's Seattle operations manager, Al Lee, was designated to be the courier who would approach the aircraft with the items Cooper requested. To avoid the possibility that Cooper might mistake Lee's airline uniform for that of a law enforcement officer, he changed into civilian clothes for the task. With the passengers remaining seated, a ground crew attached the mobile staircase. Per Cooper's directive, Mucklow exited the aircraft through the front door, and retrieved the ransom money. When Mucklow returned, she carried the money bag past the seated passengers to Cooper, seated in the last row.

Cooper then agreed to release the passengers. As the passengers debarked, Cooper inspected the money. In an attempt to break the tension, Mucklow jokingly asked Cooper if she could have some of the money. Cooper readily agreed, handed Mucklow a packet of bills, but she immediately returned the money and explained accepting gratuities was against company policy. Mucklow said Cooper had tried to tip her and the other two flight attendants earlier in the flight with money from his own pocket, but they, too, had declined, citing the company policy.

With the passengers safely debarked, only Cooper and the six crew members remained aboard Flight 305. In accordance with Cooper's demands, Mucklow made three trips outside the aircraft to retrieve the parachutes, and brought them to Cooper in the rear of the plane. While Mucklow brought aboard the parachutes, Schaffner asked Cooper if she could retrieve her purse, stored in a compartment behind his seat. Cooper agreed and told Schaffner, "I won't bite you." Flight attendant Alice Hancock then asked Cooper if the flight attendants could leave, to which Cooper replied, "Whatever you girls would like," so Hancock and Schaffner debarked. When Mucklow brought the final parachute to Cooper, she gave him printed instructions for using the parachutes, but Cooper said he didn't need them.

A problem with the refueling process caused a delay, so a second truck and then a third were brought to the aircraft to complete the refueling. During the delay, Mucklow said Cooper complained the money was delivered in a cloth bag instead of a knapsack as he had directed, and he now had to improvise a new way to transport the money. Using a pocketknife, Cooper cut the canopy from one of the reserve parachutes, and stuffed some of the money into the empty parachute bag.

An FAA official requested a face-to-face meeting with Cooper aboard the aircraft, but Cooper denied the request. Cooper became impatient, saying, "This shouldn't take so long", and, "Let's get this show on the road." Cooper then gave the cockpit crew his flight plan and directives: a southeast course toward Mexico City at the minimum airspeed possible without stalling the aircraft—approximately —at a maximum altitude. Cooper also specified the landing gear must remain deployed, the wing flaps must be lowered 15 degrees, and the cabin must remain unpressurized.

First Officer William J. Rataczak informed Cooper the flight configuration Cooper had specified limited the aircraft's range to about , so a second refueling would be necessary before entering Mexico. Cooper and the crew discussed options, and agreed on Reno–Tahoe International Airport as the refueling stop. Cooper further directed the aircraft take off with the rear exit door open and its airstair extended. Northwest's home office objected; leaving the aft staircase deployed during takeoff was unsafe. Cooper countered the procedure was safe, saying, "It can be done, do it," but Cooper did not argue the point and said he would lower the staircase once they were airborne. Cooper demanded Mucklow remain aboard to assist the operation.

Back in the air

Around 7:40 pm, Flight 305 took off, with only Cooper, Mucklow, Captain Scott, First Officer Rataczak, and Flight Engineer Harold E. Anderson aboard the aircraft. Two F-106 fighters from McChord Air Force Base and a Lockheed T-33 trainer—diverted from an unrelated Air National Guard mission—followed the 727. All three jets maintained "S" flight patterns to stay behind the slow-moving 727 and out of Cooper's view.

After takeoff, Cooper told Mucklow to lower the aft staircase. Mucklow told Cooper and the flight crew she feared being sucked out of the aircraft. The flight crew suggested Mucklow come to the cockpit and retrieve an emergency rope with which she could tie herself to a seat. Cooper rejected the suggestion, stating he did not want Mucklow going up front or the flight crew coming back to the cabin. Mucklow continued to express her fear to Cooper, and asked him to cut some cord from one of the parachutes to create a safety line for her. Cooper then told Mucklow he would lower the stairs himself, instructed Mucklow to go to the cockpit, to close the curtain partition (separating the Coach and First Class sections), and not to return.

Before she left, Mucklow begged Cooper, "Please, please take the bomb with you." Cooper responded he would either disarm the bomb or take it with him. As Mucklow walked to the cockpit and turned to close the curtain partition, she saw Cooper standing in the aisle tying what appeared to be the money bag around his waist. From the moment of takeoff to when Mucklow entered the cockpit, only four to five minutes had elapsed. For the rest of the flight to Reno, Mucklow remained in the cockpit. Mucklow was the last person to see the hijacker.

Around 8:00 pm, a cockpit warning light flashed, indicating the aft staircase had been activated. The pilot used the cabin intercom to ask Cooper if he needed assistance, but Cooper's last message was a one-word reply: "No." Suddenly, the crew's ears popped; the cabin air pressure had dropped because the aft door was open. At approximately 8:13 p.m., the aircraft's tail section suddenly pitched upward, forcing the pilots to trim and return the aircraft to level flight. In his interview with the FBI, Co-pilot Bill Rataczak said the sudden upward pitch occurred while the flight was near the suburbs north of Portland.

With the aft cabin door open and the staircase deployed, the flight crew remained in the cockpit, but were now unsure if Cooper were still aboard. Mucklow used the cabin intercom to inform Cooper they were approaching Reno, and he needed to raise the stairs so the plane could land safely. Mucklow repeated her requests as the pilots made the final approach to land, but neither Mucklow nor the flight crew received a reply from the hijacker.

At 11:02 pm, with the aft staircase still deployed, Flight 305 landed at Reno–Tahoe International Airport. FBI agents, state troopers, sheriff's deputies, and Reno police established a perimeter around the aircraft, but fearing the hijacker and the bomb were still aboard, did not approach the plane. Captain Scott searched the cabin, confirmed Cooper was no longer aboard, and after a 30-minute search, an FBI bomb squad declared the cabin safe.

Investigation

In addition to 66 latent fingerprints aboard the airliner, FBI agents recovered Cooper's black clip-on tie, tie clip, and two of the four parachutes, one of which had been opened and had two shroud lines cut from the canopy. FBI agents interviewed eyewitnesses in Portland, Seattle, and Reno, and developed a series of composite sketches.

Local police and FBI agents immediately began questioning possible suspects. Acting on the possibility the hijacker may have used his real name (or the same alias in a previous crime), Portland police discovered and interviewed a Portland citizen named D. B. Cooper. The Portland Cooper had a minor police record, but was quickly eliminated as a suspect. In his rush to meet a deadline, reporter James Long confused the Portland Cooper with the pseudonym used by the hijacker. United Press International wire service reporter Clyde Jabin republished Long’s error, and as other media sources repeated the name, "D. B. Cooper" became the hijacker's pseudonym.

Due to the number of variables and parameters, precisely defining the area to search was difficult. The jet’s airspeed estimates varied, and the environmental conditions along the flight path varied with the aircraft's location and altitude, and only Cooper knew how long he stayed in free-fall before pulling his ripcord. The Air Force F-106 pilots neither saw anyone jumping from the airliner, nor did their radar detect a deployed parachute. Moreover, a black-clad individual jumping into the moonless night would be difficult to see, especially given the limited visibility, cloud cover, and lack of ground lighting. The T-33 pilots did not make visual contact with the 727.

On December 6, 1971, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover approved the use of an Air Force SR-71 Blackbird to retrace and photograph Flight 305's flightpath, and to locate the items Cooper carried during his jump. The SR-71 made five flights to retrace Flight 305's route, but due to poor visibility, the photography attempts were unsuccessful.

In an experimental recreation, flying the same aircraft used in the hijacking in the same flight configuration, FBI agents pushed a sled out of the open airstair and were able to reproduce the upward motion of the tail section and brief change in cabin pressure described by the flight crew at 8:13 pm. Initial extrapolations placed Cooper's landing zone within an area on the southernmost outreach of Mount St. Helens, a few miles southeast of Ariel, Washington, near Lake Merwin, an artificial lake formed by a dam on the Lewis River. Search efforts focused on Clark and Cowlitz counties, encompassing the terrain immediately south and north, respectively, of the Lewis River in southwest Washington. FBI agents and sheriff's deputies searched large areas of the heavily wooded terrain on foot and by helicopter. Door-to-door searches of local farmhouses were also carried out. Other search parties ran patrol boats along Lake Merwin and Yale Lake

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