The Hijacker Who Vanished Without a Trace

On November 24, 1971, a man named Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 727 bound for Seattle, Washington. As he ordered himself a drink while the plane prepared to take off, he flagged down a flight attendant and told her he had a bomb in his suitcase, then demanded $200,000 in cash and four parachutes. Later that night, as he instructed the pilots to fly a particular speed and route, he opened the aft staircase and leaped into the void, disappearing forever. To this day, the entire world remains stumped. Who was this man—and what happened to him?

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1. He's Like the Real James Bond

Part of the reason why D.B. Cooper was—and still is—so popular and widely talked about isn't just the mystery that surrounds his story; it's the fact that his description sounds like the real James Bond. The police's brief about his appearance—white male, mid-forties, well-spoken, in a sleek dark suit, carrying a briefcase, wearing sunglasses—made him seem like an extremely suave man.

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2. Dan Cooper Was His Alias

Dan Cooper might sound like a real name, but it was just his alias. When he'd bought his ticket, he'd given out this name, which was later found to be fake. He's also widely known as D.B. Cooper due to a mix-up between the FBI and the reporting press, and it eventually stuck.

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3. Bought a One-Way Ticket

A day before Thanksgiving, on November 24, 1971, Cooper approached an airline ticket counter at Portland, Oregon. He used cash to buy himself a $20 one-way ticket for a flight, operated by Northwest Orient Airlines, that was bound for Seattle, Washington. Until he'd sat a flight attendant down and revealed he had a bomb in his briefcase, everything seemed normal. He even lit a cigarette and ordered himself a bourbon and soda while waiting for the plane to take off, telling the stewardess to keep the change.

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4. He Demanded $200,000 in Cash

Shortly after taking off from Portland, Cooper handed a note to a flight attendant, saying that he had a bomb in his briefcase. He then demanded $200,000 in cash (worth around $1.6 million now)—and more specifically, in $20 bills with random serial numbers—and four parachutes.

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5. He Jumped Out of the Plane

After releasing some hostages in Seattle, Cooper made specific demands, one of which was that the pilots fly to Mexico City. However, a non-stop journey wasn't possible, and they all agreed on a refueling stop in Reno, Nevada. Around 8PM, while the flight soared the skies above Ariel, Washington, he lowered the rear steps and jumped out with the parachutes—a primary one and, unbeknownst to him, a dummy one—and the ransom money.

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6. No One Saw Him Jump

And yet, the only likely explanation for Cooper's disappearance was that he'd jumped. No one actually saw him do it. While one of the flight attendants was ordered by Cooper to sit beside him at the beginning of the journey to Reno, so that she could show him how to extend the aft staircase, he later sent her back to the cockpit. When the plane landed some three hours later, there was no sign of Cooper or the bomb. Only the stairs, which were slightly damaged upon landing, held the clue that Cooper had leaped mid-flight.

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7. Some of the Money Was Found Years Later

In February 1980, an eight-year-old boy named Brian Ingram was vacationing near Vancouver, Washington, when he discovered some bills (totalling $5,800) buried along the Columbia River. They were still bundled as they'd been when given to Cooper that fateful night. FBI later confirmed it was a portion of Cooper's ransom money, and was found 14 km (9 mi) from where he was projected to land. The boy was able to keep some of his findings and went on to gain over $37,000 after placing the bills up for auction.

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8. He Forever Changed Aviation Safety

Because of Cooper and copycat hijackers who tried to mirror his footsteps, the aviation industry had to make dramatic changes, such as implementing tighter security measures to prevent potential hijackers from boarding aircraft in the first place. Airlines also had to update planes to include a device called a Cooper vane, which made it impossible for the aft staircase to open mid-flight.

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9. He Inspired Copycat Hijackers

Many copycats were inspired by Cooper's successful (or unsuccessful, depending on how you see it) hijacking. In fact, so popular was his legend, that people tried to mimic his case the following year. The most well-known and interesting case was the attempt by Frederick Hahneman, who tried to follow Cooper's exact plan. After jumping out in the dead of night into a jungle, he eventually turned himself in to the US Embassy.

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10. FBI Closed His Case in 2016

Forty-five years after investigators started combing through the evidence and any trace of Cooper, the case was closed in 2016. Without any new evidence or definitive leads to follow, the FBI was stumped and decided they needed to invest their energy elsewhere. Cooper's case remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in US history.

In fact, what makes Cooper's case so interesting is that there are far more details we don't know than ones we do. Let's take a look at what still puzzles the public and the FBI to this day.

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1. His Real Name

Cooper's alias may have been Dan Cooper, but because his identity has never been matched or found, his real name remains a mystery. It's uncertain where he got his alias from either, though it's believed by some to have been inspired by a Franco-Belgian comic, whose hero bore the same name and centered around a test pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

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2. Where He Went

One curious question remains in the aftermath of Cooper's mission: Where did he go? If he survived, where did he land? While the circumstances of that night and the rough terrain where it's speculated he landed were treacherous, the jump wasn't entirely a leap of faith. In fact, others have survived performing similar stunts.

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3. What His Motivation Was

It's also unclear what Cooper's motives were. Was it simply to get away with a good chunk of money, or was there a deeper reason behind it? Was he struggling financially? Because it's still unknown where Cooper went or if he'd even survived afterwards, it only adds more to the mystery and leaves room for endless theories.

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4. What Happened to the Rest of the Money

And yet, if he hadn't survived, what happened to the rest of the ransom money? Only a portion ($5,800) had been found in 1980 by a young boy raking through the Columbia River, and it's unclear where the rest of the amount went. Plus, mysteries surround how the bundles found by the beach even made their way there, with some speculating that they may have been deliberately put there by someone.

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5. His Real Identity

It's not just that the FBI don't know his real name; they don't even know Cooper's real identity. Numerous suspects have been speculated by investigators through the years (and some have even claimed to be him), yet there hasn't been any definitive evidence that any of them were ever actually tied to the crime.

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6. How He Knew So Much About Aviation

Cooper's demands and instructions for the pilots aboard Flight 305 seemed to point to him having a fair amount of aviation knowledge. The FBI originally speculated that he may have served in the military as a paratrooper, but the decision to make such a dangerous jump seemed to prove otherwise. Even then, he appeared well-prepared enough, other than the faithful leap.

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7. Why (or If) He Acted Alone

While Cooper's tale is often told as a one-person job, it's still uncertain whether he had an accomplice at all. Investigators have speculated that he may have had a helper on the ground, though again, nothing definitive has been found. For such a difficult heist, it also begs the question: If he had acted alone, why?

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8. Why Flight 305?

Of all the flights he could've chosen to take that day and carry out his plan on, why did he decide on Flight 305? Though Cooper himself seemed to have dismissed that there was a specific reason, stating that he "had a grudge" and 305 just happened to be in the right place and the right time, theories still exist. Some believe he chose 305 because he knew the unique layout of the Boeing 727, but no concrete connection has ever been made.

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9. Was He an Agent or an Actor?

There's something else that's peculiar in the files released by the FBI. In it, a detail notes that, two weeks prior to the hijacking, a man matching Cooper's description had discussed with pilots about how to safely drop an object from a moving plane, citing that he was working on a movie script. The pilots informed him how a plane would need to fly—low and slow—for this attempt to be possible. However, when the FBI questioned the pilots, they claimed they couldn't recall the name of the movie, the production studio, or anything else. The man was never identified.

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10. Whether He's Still Alive Today

Though it's much more plausible to believe that Cooper did not survive the jump, the mystery around his tale and legend lives on because it's unclear what his fate was. Did he perish on the rocky landscape? Or did he survive, obtain a new identity, and went on to live life unscathed—and unfound?

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