(Original title) The FBI released the artist’s drawing of DB Cooper on November 27. The suspect is a hijacker. He parachuted from Northwest Airlines’ 727 jet after collecting a ransom of $200,000 in Seattle. .
- Fifty years after he jumped into uncharted territory, the DB Cooper case remains the only unresolved hijacking incident in American history.
- The FBI launched a far-reaching investigation, but after several weeks of searching through the dense, rugged forests of the northwestern United States, investigators found nothing.
- Over the years, some far-fetched theories have continued to emerge, and dozens of people even claimed to be DB Cooper before they died.
On the eve of Thanksgiving in 1971, an ordinary man in his 40s who called himself Dan Cooper approached the airport counter and bought a one-way ticket for a short flight from Portland to Seattle.
Within a few hours, he strapped a bag containing a ransom of $200,000 to himself-worth about $1.3 million today-and parachuted off the plane, and never found it again.
Fifty years after he jumped into uncharted territory, the DB Cooper case—an alias created by the media—is still the only unresolved airplane hijacking case in American history.
The FBI called him “a quiet man, looking in his 40s, wearing a suit, black tie and white shirt.”
He ordered bourbon and soda while waiting for the plane to take off.
His plan is quite simple. After the plane took off, Cooper handed a note to the flight attendant. According to reports, when she did not respond immediately, he leaned over and said, “Miss, you better look at that note. I have a bomb.”
After glancing at the large number of wires in the briefcase, the swaying flight attendant wrote down his request-four parachutes and $200,000-and handed them to the captain as instructed.
When the plane landed in Seattle, Cooper asked 36 passengers to leave in exchange for money and parachutes brought by the FBI.
In order to ensure the safety of the crew, he asked the plane to take off again and fly at a low altitude-this time to Mexico City.
But somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada, Cooper jumped out of the back door of the Boeing 727 into a cold winter night.
The FBI launched a far-reaching investigation, but after several weeks of searching through the dense, rugged forests of the northwestern United States, investigators found nothing.
After more than five years of interviews with 800 suspects, there are still no signs of the hijacker or his parachute.
Did he even survive the jump? Can his clothes and supplies last long in the icy wilderness?
These and more questions remain unanswered.
“He is a man who presents himself in a James Bond style,” said researcher Eric Ulis, whose quest to solve Cooper’s mystery was the subject of the History Channel documentary.
Historian Ulis investigated and wrote about the case for nearly 14 years. He also organized CooperCon, a conference for other hijacking mystery enthusiasts.
Mary Jean Fryar was an FBI agent responsible for investigations in the 2000s.
She said that Cooper became “a kind of folklore hero” in the United States after the high-altitude robbery.
She described the current series of interests surrounding the case as a kind of “cult” because the hijacker was never discovered.
Over the years, some far-fetched theories have continued to emerge, and dozens of people even claimed to be DB Cooper before they died.
FBI investigators checked many interesting materials, such as Barbara Dayton, an amateur pilot and transgender woman who allegedly confessed to her friend; Lynn Doyle Cooper After (Lynn Doyle Cooper)’s niece was bloody and beaten at the Thanksgiving dinner that year, his niece believed his involvement; and the World War II veteran Sheridan Paterson (Sheridan Paterson) interviewed by Fryar.
The FBI finally closed the case in 2016, “to focus on other investigative priorities.”
Uliss said that despite “some serious mistakes,” federal law enforcement agencies have generally done “very well.”
He argued that the FBI had mistaken the flight path, so DB Cooper would land several miles from the vast search area.
But the mysterious atmosphere surrounding this incident continues to inspire Americans.
DB Cooper appliances are easy to buy online: fans can choose coffee cups, T-shirts, bumper stickers and socks-before closing, there was even a DB Cooper strip club in Texas.
