I suppose it was inevitable after 45 years of intensive but mostly futile investigating the FBI this week said it pulled the plug on the Dan “DB” Cooper hijacking/ransom case.
Advertisement
In November of 1971, Dan “DB” Cooper was on a Northwest Orient Airlines flight to Seattle, flashed what appeared to be a bomb, threatened to blow up the plane if he didn’t get $200 thousand dollars, received the money, donned a parachute and leaped from the plane while over the Pacific Northwest, with the ransom money. Once the plane was airborne, at around 3 p.m., Cooper passed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner insisting that she sit with him.
The FBI says the fugitive suspect demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills.
It looks as if the man known as D.B. Cooper – the legendary criminal who hijacked a US passenger plane, extorted $200,000 in ransom and parachuted to an uncertain fate – may have gotten away with it.
But almost 45 years on from the daring heist, investigators are closing the unsolved case for good after failing to identify the criminal who became known as “DB Cooper”.
The FBI has ended the 45-year search for D.B.
The FBI’s Seattle office says it’s closing the case now in order to focus on other investigations. It says it’s chased an vast number of tips but none have resulted in identifying the hijacker. But “in order to solve a case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation must prove culpability beyond a reasonable doubt, and, unfortunately, none of the well-meaning tips or applications of new investigative technology have yielded the necessary proof”.
Upon being handed the cash and parachutes, the hijacker known in the flight manifest as “Dan Cooper” departed with a few crew members for Mexico City, as he had demanded.
At an altitude of about 1.9 miles, Cooper made his dramatic exodus, disappearing into the night from the back of the jetliner, wearing a suit jacket and with the money strapped to his body. And after all these years, his identity has never been established.
No sign of Cooper has emerged, though bundles of his cash, matched by serial numbers, were found in 1980.
The FBI said it is still encouraging anyone with new information or possible evidence – such as the parachutes or ransom money – to come forward.
Advertisement
The agency said it will preserve evidence from the case at its Washington, D.C., headquarters, but it doesn’t want further tips unless people find parachutes or Cooper’s money. To see justice served. The case has puzzled FBI investigators for the last 45 years, and is the country’s oldest unsolved skyjacking. “But that happens sometimes – either we’re not able to solve it or much time passes before it can be resolved”.
