How a man in a business suit vanished into the night with $200,000 and became a legend
On November 24, 1971—the day before Thanksgiving—a nondescript man in his mid-40s walked onto Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 in Portland, Oregon, with a briefcase and a plan. He had purchased a $20 ticket under the name Dan Cooper. Within minutes of takeoff toward Seattle, he handed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner claiming he had a bomb. When she asked to see proof, he opened his briefcase to reveal wires, red sticks, and a battery.
The man—later misidentified as "D.B. Cooper" by media reporting errors—had ignited what would become one of the most enduring mysteries in American criminal history.
**The Demands and Standoff**
Abflug und Entführung
Um 14:50 Uhr hebt Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 von Portland ab. Ein Mann namens Dan Cooper zeigt der Flugbegleiterin eine vermeintliche Bombe und fordert 200.000 Dollar sowie vier Fallschirme.
Landung in Seattle
Um 17:39 Uhr landet das Flugzeug in Seattle. Die Behörden liefern das Lösegeld und die Fallschirme. Alle Passagiere werden freigelassen, die Crew bleibt an Bord.
Der Sprung ins Unbekannte
Gegen 20:13 Uhr öffnet Cooper die hintere Tür der Boeing 727 und springt mit dem Geld und einem Fallschirm über Südwest-Washington ab. Seitdem fehlt jede Spur von ihm.
FBI setzt Spionageflugzeug ein
FBI-Direktor J. Edgar Hoover genehmigt den Einsatz einer SR-71 Blackbird zur Suche nach Cooper. Schlechtes Wetter macht die Suche jedoch erfolglos.
FBI stellt Ermittlungen ein
Nach 45 Jahren aktiver Ermittlungen stellt das FBI die Suche nach D.B. Cooper offiziell ein. Der Fall bleibt bis heute ungeklärt.
Cooper's demands were simple but audacious: $200,000 in $20 bills (equivalent to roughly $1.6 million in 2025 currency) and four parachutes. He ordered the Boeing 727 to land in Seattle and threatened to detonate his device if the authorities didn't comply.
The plane circled Puget Sound for approximately two hours while Seattle police and FBI agents scrambled to assemble the ransom and parachutes. Northwest Orient Airlines president Donald Nyrop authorized the payment. Once the money and parachutes arrived, Cooper released 36 passengers (accounts vary, with some sources citing 51) but retained the pilots, flight engineer, and one flight attendant as hostages.
After refueling, Cooper ordered the aircraft to fly toward Mexico City with a scheduled stop in Reno, Nevada. He insisted the plane fly below 10,000 feet at a maximum speed of 200 knots—slow enough to make a safe parachute jump.
**The Disappearance**
Around 8:00 PM, somewhere between Seattle and Reno near Ariel, Washington, Cooper lowered the aircraft's rear stairs and jumped into the night over a remote, heavily forested region of Southwest Washington. He was never seen again.
Despite one of the most intensive manhunts in FBI history, Cooper was never identified or apprehended. The mystery of his true identity, whether he survived the jump, and what happened to him has captivated investigators and the public for decades. No concrete evidence has ever definitively answered these questions.
**A Wave of Copycat Hijackings**
Cooper's audacious crime inspired over a dozen copycat hijackings in the following year, though none achieved his notoriety. On December 24, 1971, just one month after Cooper's jump, Everett Holt hijacked Northwest Flight 734 and demanded $300,000. Unlike Cooper, Holt was caught. He was initially committed to a mental hospital, and his charges were dismissed in May 1975.
Other imitators fared worse. Some, like McNally, jumped without proper parachute gear and were captured. Others, such as LaPoint, left physical at landing sites and were apprehended via footprints. A Philadelphia duo also attempted similar crimes. The string of copycat incidents eventually led to enhanced airport security measures that made future hijackings significantly more difficult to execute.