It said after looking at all credible leads, enough is enough – resources spent on the Cooper case will be redirected to “focus on other investigative priorities”.
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On 24 November 1971, a plane travelling between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, was hijacked by a man claiming to have a bomb in his suitcase and identifying himself as Dan Cooper – reported as DB Cooper, due a media misunderstanding.
In a statement, the FBI said it was ending “one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in [its] history” so that it would no longer divert resources from more pressing cases. According to Rolling Stone, the bureau has chose to call off the 45-year investigation in order to allocate resources toward more pressing investigative priorities.
The FBI is closing its active investigation into the airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper. He wore a business suit, a black tie and white shirt. One leading fan theory for the television drama Mad Men, set in the 1960s, posited that Don Draper would eventually turn out to be DB Cooper.
Still, many possible suspects have been postulated in the 45 years since the jump.
After she sat, Cooper showed the stewardess a glimpse of a mass of wires and red colored sticks.
The FBI added that if any individual comes across any physical evidence related to the case like the parachute or the money taken by the hijacker, they should contact their local FBI field office.
The aircraft safely landed in Seattle, where the man freed 36 passengers in exchange for $200,000 in cash from the airline and four parachutes, but kept several crew members aboard as the plane took off again, ordered this time to fly to Mexico City.
In addition, Gray – author of “Skyjack: The Hunt for D. B. Cooper”, published by Broadway – says a quirk in the statute of limitations laws means that “in theory, if Cooper were to walk out of the woods today, he could theoretically be charged with a crime”.
He was outfitted with just a parachute and was clutching $200,000 in ransom money when he leapt from the jet, which was heading to Nevada from Seattle.
The FBI said they tracked leads, and by the five-year anniversary of the hijacking, more than 800 suspects had been considered.
Whether “D.B.” – a name created by the press, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation – survived the 10,000 foot plunge into the wilderness has never been confirmed, and his true identity has never been determined.
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Bundles of crumbling US$20 bills from the ransom money were however unearthed by a small boy on a sandbar in the Columbia River in 1980.
