On a cold November evening in 1971, a man known only as D.B. Cooper pulled off one of the most daring and mysterious crimes in American history. He hijacked a commercial airplane, collected a $200,000 ransom, and then jumped out of the plane with a parachute somewhere over the Pacific Northwest.
He was never found.
More than 50 years later the case remains the only unsolved hijacking in United States aviation history. No one knows who D.B. Cooper really was, whether he survived the jump, or what happened to the money. Here is the full story of the man who became a legend.
The Hijacking — November 24, 1971
It was the day before Thanksgiving. A man in his mid-forties boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 in Portland, Oregon. He was dressed in a dark business suit, wore a black tie, and carried a briefcase. He gave his name as Dan Cooper when he bought his ticket — a name that was later misreported by a journalist as D.B. Cooper, and the nickname stuck forever.
The flight was headed to Seattle, Washington. Shortly after takeoff Cooper passed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner. She assumed it was a phone number from a flirty passenger and dropped it in her purse without reading it.
Cooper leaned over and told her quietly — you better read that note.
The note said he had a bomb.
The Demands
Cooper opened his briefcase briefly to show Schaffner what appeared to be red sticks, wires and a battery. Whether it was a real bomb or not has never been confirmed.
His demands were simple and specific:
- $200,000 in cash — the equivalent of over $1.5 million today
- Four parachutes — two primary and two reserve
- A fuel truck waiting in Seattle to refuel the plane
The airline and FBI agreed to all of his demands. They did not want to risk the lives of the 36 passengers and 6 crew members on board.
When the plane landed in Seattle the passengers were released. Cooper received the money — $20 bills with serial numbers recorded by the FBI — and the four parachutes.
The Jump
With only the crew remaining on board Cooper ordered the plane to take off again and head toward Mexico City. He gave specific instructions — fly low at no more than 10,000 feet, keep the landing gear down, fly slowly.
Somewhere over the rugged wilderness between Seattle and Reno, Nevada — most likely over the Cascade Mountains in southwestern Washington — Cooper lowered the rear stairs of the Boeing 727 and jumped into the dark night sky.
It was raining. The temperature was around 7 degrees Celsius. The terrain below was dense forest, deep ravines and rugged mountains.
No one saw him again.
The Investigation
The FBI launched one of the largest manhunts in American history. They interviewed hundreds of suspects, followed thousands of leads and investigated the case for decades.
Here is what they know:
- Cooper jumped somewhere between Seattle and Reno but the exact location has never been confirmed
- He was carrying about 21 pounds of cash in a bag
- He jumped without a helmet or proper cold weather gear
- Survival experts believed the conditions that night made survival extremely unlikely
In 1980 a young boy named Brian Ingram found a bundle of rotting $20 bills on the banks of the Columbia River near Vancouver, Washington. The serial numbers matched the Cooper ransom money. About $5,800 worth of the $200,000 was recovered — but no other bills have ever been found despite extensive searches.
Who Was D.B. Cooper?
Over the years dozens of suspects have been named. Some have been investigated seriously by the FBI. None have ever been proven to be the real D.B. Cooper.
Some of the most notable suspects include:
Richard McCoy Jr. — A man who pulled off a nearly identical hijacking just four months later in 1972. He was caught, convicted, and later escaped from prison. The FBI investigated him seriously but concluded he was not Cooper based on witness descriptions.
L.D. Cooper — A man named after by his niece Marla Cooper in 2011. She claimed her uncle talked about the hijacking in suspicious ways and matched the description. DNA testing was inconclusive.
Robert Rackstraw — A former Army paratrooper and convicted criminal who was investigated multiple times. A team of private investigators claimed in 2016 to have found coded messages in Cooper letters to the media pointing to Rackstraw. The FBI never confirmed this.
Barbara Dayton — Some researchers have claimed Cooper was actually a woman disguised as a man. This theory has never gained serious traction with investigators.
Did He Survive?
Most experts believe D.B. Cooper did not survive the jump. Here is why:
- The terrain he jumped over was some of the most rugged and remote wilderness in the Pacific Northwest
- He was jumping in the dark in rainy and cold conditions
- He had no helmet and no cold weather gear
- He took one of the reserve parachutes — which cannot be steered — instead of a proper skydiving chute
- No body was ever found but the wilderness he jumped into is vast enough that a body could remain hidden for decades
However the fact that only $5,800 of the money was ever found — and in a location consistent with river movement over many years — keeps alive the theory that Cooper buried the rest of the money somewhere and perhaps lived a quiet life under a new identity.
The FBI Closes the Case
After 45 years of investigation the FBI officially suspended active investigation of the D.B. Cooper case in July 2016. They cited the need to focus resources on other priorities.
In their statement the FBI said:
“In order to solve the case, we need to recover the parachute or the money. Despite six years of investigation we have not been able to identify the hijacker.”
The case file remains open technically and the FBI has said they will still accept credible physical evidence if it ever surfaces.
Why D.B. Cooper Became a Legend
D.B. Cooper was never celebrated as a violent criminal. He was polite to the crew throughout the hijacking. He ordered drinks, tipped the flight attendant, and never harmed anyone. In the social climate of the early 1970s — a time of anti-establishment sentiment and distrust of corporations and government — many Americans quietly admired his audacity.
He became the subject of books, movies, documentaries and TV shows. A town in Washington holds an annual D.B. Cooper Day celebration. There are fan clubs, websites and dedicated researchers who have spent decades trying to solve the mystery.
He became something the FBI never intended — a folk hero.
The Mystery Lives On
To this day no one knows who D.B. Cooper was. No one knows if he survived. No one knows where the rest of the money is.
What we do know is that on one rainy November night in 1971 a man in a business suit walked onto a plane, pulled off a daring heist, jumped into the darkness over the Pacific Northwest — and simply disappeared.
It is the kind of story that feels like it belongs in a movie. But it really happened.
And somewhere out there — in a forest, in a river, or perhaps in the quiet memory of an old man living under a different name — the answer is still waiting to be found.
What do you think happened to D.B. Cooper? Did he survive the jump or did the wilderness claim him? Leave your theory in the comments below!
