THE MYSTERY OF DB COOPER

On Nov. 24, 1971, Dan Cooper was a passenger on Northwest Airlines Flight 305, from Portland to Seattle—a 30-minute flight. He was described by passengers and flight attendants as a man in his mid-40s, wearing a dark suit, black tie with a mother-of-pearl tie clip, and a neatly pressed white collared shirt. He took his seat, lit a cigarette and politely ordered a bourbon and soda. Shortly after takeoff, he handed a 23-year-old flight attendant a note that reportedly said: “Miss, I have a bomb and would like you to sit by me.”

His demands were for $200,000 (worth $1.5 million today), four parachutes and a fuel truck standing by in Seattle to refuel the plane on arrival. The flight attendant brought the demands to the captain. The airline’s president authorized full cooperation. The other passengers had no idea what was happening; they were told that the landing was delayed due to mechanical difficulties.

When the plane landed, an airline employee delivered a cash-filled knapsack and parachutes, and Cooper allowed all passengers and two flight attendants to leave the plane. During refueling, Cooper outlined his plan to the crew: a southeasterly course toward Mexico with one further refueling stop in Nevada. Two hours later, the plane took off. When it landed in Reno, Cooper was no longer on the plane. Cooper (whom the media mistakenly referred to as “D.B. Cooper”) was never seen or heard from again. No parachute was found, and the ransom money was never used.

But in 1980, a young boy on vacation with his family near the Columbia River in Oregon found several packets of the ransom money (identifiable by serial number). That surprise discovery led to an intense search of the area for Cooper (or his remains). There was no sign of him. The FBI closed its case in 2016.

But that wasn’t the last chapter of this mystery: In 2024, two siblings came forward claiming their father, Richard Floyd McCoy Jr., was actually D.B. Cooper. McCoy Jr., a military-trained parachutist, was convicted for an eerily similar hijacking in April 1972 over Provo, Utah (he was sentenced to 45 years in prison). He died two years later. While he is the most likely suspect there is still no definitive proof that he pulled off the original heist...