Unidentified airplane hijacker in 1971
D. B. Cooper, also known as Dan Cooper, was an unidentified man who hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft, in United States airspace on November 24, 1971. During the flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, Cooper told a flight attendant he had a bomb, and demanded $200,000 in ransom () and four parachutes upon landing in Seattle. After releasing the passengers in Seattle, Cooper instructed the flight crew to refuel the aircraft and begin a second flight to Mexico City, with a refueling stop in Reno, Nevada. About thirty minutes after taking off from Seattle, Cooper opened the aircraft's aft door, deployed the staircase, and parachuted into the night over southwestern Washington. Cooper's true identity and whereabouts have never been determined conclusively.
In 1980, a small portion of the ransom money was found along the banks of the Columbia River near Vancouver, Washington. The discovery of the money renewed public interest in the mystery but yielded no additional information about Cooper's identity or fate, and the remaining money was never recovered. For forty-five 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 documented 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, Cooper's lack of proper skydiving equipment, the forested terrain into which he jumped, his 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 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 during the next year — immediately prompted major upgrades to security measures for airports and commercial aviation. Metal detectors were installed at airports, 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", designed to prevent the aft staircase from being lowered in-flight. By 1973, aircraft hijacking incidents had decreased, as the new security measures 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 for Northwest Orient Airlines at Portland International Airport. Using cash, the man bought a one-way ticket on Flight 305, a thirty-minute trip north to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac). 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, a thin black tie, a black raincoat and brown shoes.294 Carrying a briefcase and a brown paper bag,294 Cooper boarded Flight 305, a Boeing 727-100 (FAA registration N467US). Cooper took seat 18-E in the last row and ordered a drink, a bourbon and 7-Up from a flight attendant.
With a crew of six (consisting of Captain William A. Scott, First Officer William "Bill" J. Rataczak, Flight Engineer Harold E. Anderson and flight attendants Alice Hancock, Tina Mucklow and Florence Schaffner) and thirty-six passengers aboard, including Cooper, Flight 305 left Portland on-schedule at 2:50 pm PST. Shortly after takeoff, Cooper handed a note to flight attendant Schaffner, who was sitting in the jump seat at the rear of the airplane,159 directly behind Cooper. Assuming the note was a lonely businessman's telephone 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 he requested, and asked quietly to see the bomb. He opened his briefcase, and she saw two rows of four red cylinders, which she assumed were dynamite. Attached to the cylinders were a wire and a large, cylindrical battery, which resembled a bomb.
Cooper closed the briefcase and told Schaffner his demands. She wrote a note with Cooper's demands, brought it to the cockpit and informed the flight crew of the situation. Captain Scott directed her to remain in the cockpit for the remainder of the flight and take notes of events as they happened. He then relayed to Northwest flight operations in Minnesota the hijacker's demands: "[Cooper] requests $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." By requesting two sets of parachutes, Cooper implied he planned to take a hostage with him, thereby discouraging authorities from supplying non-functional equipment.
With Schaffner in the cockpit, flight attendant Mucklow sat next to Cooper to act as a liaison between him and the flight crew.160 Cooper then made additional demands: upon landing at Sea-Tac, fuel trucks were to meet the plane and all passengers were to remain seated while Mucklow brought the money aboard. He said he would release the passengers after he had the money. The last items brought aboard would be the four parachutes.160
Scott informed Sea–Tac air traffic control of the situation, who contacted the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The passengers were told their arrival in Seattle would be delayed because of a "minor mechanical difficulty." Donald Nyrop, the president of Northwest at the time, 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 the SPD 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 Mucklow remain by his side at all times.150 She later said Cooper appeared familiar with the local terrain; while looking out the window, he remarked, "Looks like Tacoma down there", as the aircraft flew above it. When told the parachutes were coming from McChord Air Force Base, Cooper correctly noted McChord was only a twenty-minute drive from Sea-Tac.156 She later described the hijacker's demeanor: "[Cooper] was not nervous. He seemed rather nice and he was not cruel or nasty."174
While the airplane circled Seattle, Mucklow chatted with Cooper and asked why he chose Northwest Airlines to hijack. He laughed and replied, "It's not because I have a grudge against your airlines, it's just because I have a grudge," then explained the flight simply suited his needs.161 He asked where she was from; she answered she was originally from Pennsylvania, but was living in Minneapolis at the time. Cooper responded that Minnesota was "very nice country."161 She asked where he was from, but he became upset and refused to answer.160 He asked if she smoked and offered her a cigarette. She replied she had quit, but accepted the cigarette.161
FBI records note Cooper spoke briefly to an unidentified passenger while the airplane maintained its holding pattern over Seattle. In his interview with FBI agents, passenger George Labissoniere stated he visited the restroom directly behind Cooper on several occasions. After one visit, Labissoniere said the path to his seat was blocked by a passenger wearing a cowboy hat, questioning Mucklow about the supposed mechanical problem delaying them. 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.170
Mucklow's version of the interaction differed from Labissoniere's. She said a passenger approached her and asked for a sports magazine to read because he was bored. She and the passenger moved to an area directly behind Cooper, where they both 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", but she reassured him there were no sky marshals on the flight.161 Despite his brief interaction with Cooper, "the cowboy" was not interviewed by the FBI and was never identified.
The $200,000 ransom was received from Seattle First National Bank in a bag weighing approximately .123 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.101 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, Scott was informed the parachutes had been delivered to Sea-Tac and notified Cooper they would be landing soon. At 5:46 PST, Flight 305 landed at Sea-Tac.163 With Cooper's permission, Scott parked the aircraft on a partially-lit runway, away from the main terminal.163 Cooper demanded only one representative of the airline approach the plane with the parachutes and money, and the only entrance and exit would be through the aircraft's front door via mobile stairs.15
Northwest's Seattle operations manager, Al Lee, was designated to be the courier. To avoid the possibility Cooper might mistake Lee's airline uniform for a law enforcement officer, he changed into civilian clothes for the task. With the passengers remaining seated, a ground crew attached a mobile stair. Per Cooper's directive, Mucklow exited the aircraft through the front door and retrieved the ransom money. When she returned, she carried the money bag past the seated passengers to Cooper in the last row.163
Cooper then agreed to release the passengers. As they debarked, Cooper inspected the money. In an attempt to break the tension, Mucklow jokingly asked Cooper if she could have some of it. Cooper readily agreed and handed her a packet of bills, but she immediately returned the money and explained accepting gratuities was against company policy. She said Cooper had tried to tip her and the other two flight attendants earlier in the flight with money from his pocket, but they had each declined, citing the policy.163
With the passengers safely debarked, only Cooper and the six crew members remained aboard.153 In accordance with Cooper's demands, Mucklow made three trips outside the aircraft to retrieve the parachutes, which she brought to him 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 her, "I won't bite you." Flight attendant Hancock then asked Cooper if the flight attendants could leave, to which he replied, "Whatever you girls would like,"163 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.163
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.163 Using a pocket knife, he cut the canopy from one of the reserve parachutes, and stuffed some of the money into the empty parachute bag.155
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." He 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 Rataczak informed Cooper that the configuration 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