- [Narrator] About 40 years ago,
a man known as D.B Cooper hijacked an airplane
demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars
then jumped with a parachute into the wilderness
never to be seen again.
So who was this mysterious D.B Cooper?
And how did he manage to get away
with such a brazen crime?
Let's find out in today's episode of, Colossal Mysteries.
Our story starts on a cold stormy afternoon
at the Portland International Airport
on the day before thanksgiving back in 1971.
That was the day a mysterious man entered the airport
and bought a $20 ticket
on Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 to Seattle
a short half hour trip.
He signed for his ticket using the name Dan Cooper.
He looked to be in his 40s with olive skin and brown hair.
He wore a reddish brown suit, a skinny black clip-on tie
and big horn rimmed glasses.
He also carried with him a raincoat and a bag.
Mr. Cooper boarded the plane and took a seat.
Aboard the small plane were five crew members,
the pilot, co-pilot and three flight attendants.
There were also 37 other unsuspecting passengers
on board as well.
Shortly after takeoff,
Dan Cooper ordered a drink from one of the flight attendants
when she returned with it
he quietly passed her a hand scrawled note
the flight attendants face froze with fear as she read.
The note said that he had a bomb in his bag
and asked her to write down a second note
and take it to the pilot as her hands trembled she wrote,
I want 200,000 by 5:00 p.m. in cash, put it in a knapsack.
I want two back parachutes and two front parachutes.
When we land, I want to fuel truck ready to refuel,
no funny stuff or I'll do the job.
Petrified she took the ransom note to the cockpit
and just like that the only unsolved hijacking
in American history was underway.
The airline's president agreed
to pay Cooper's $200,000 ransom
and the authorities scrambled
to get their hands on some parachutes.
Finally, the cops got to the airport with the parachutes
and money and the plane prepared to land.
Once on the ground, Cooper sent another
flight attendant out to grab the cash and chutes
and once they were back on the plane
he let the passengers and other flight attendants go.
While the plane refueled for his escape,
Cooper told the two pilots to fly low and slow
at an altitude of 10,000 feet
and no more than a 190 miles per hour.
At that height and speed
he could still open the plane staircase
without being instantly sucked out into the sky.
Cooper prepped his parachute
put it on and told the flight attendant
to retreat to the cockpit.
That was the last time anyone would see
the mysterious Dan Cooper.
A light flash in the cockpit at 7:42 p.m.
indicating the staircase had been open
and at 8:12 the crew felt the plane wobble
as Cooper jumped from the stairs
with his money and parachute
disappearing into the fat Seattle skies.
Almost overnight a massive manhunt was underway,
thousands of military troops and police officers
combed the woods and riverbanks
but found virtually nothing.
Curiously the CIA even got involved
deploying a super secret state-of-the-art spy plane
to aid in the search.
This story sent shockwaves across the country
and quickly became front-page news.
One of the first articles misreported
the suspects name as D.B instead of Dan Cooper
and the incorrect name stuck.
So who was this mysterious criminal?
And where did he go after parachuting from the plane?
After an extensive investigation,
the FBI concluded that Cooper most likely died
during his jump.
And it's possible that he was never even able
to open his chute
but without any evidence they couldn't be sure.
There were several factors working against Cooper,
he jumped into freezing rain and thick clouds
at temperatures well below freezing wearing just his suit
while carrying his bag of money.
The Cascade Mountains below
were an unforgiving landscape
covered in rocks and tall pointed trees
making a landing even more dangerous.
It took seven years before the first
trace bits of evidence turned up.
Hunters unearthed a plastic instruction card
showing how to lower the staircase
on the exact type of aircraft Cooper had commandeered.
Two years later, an even bigger clue
was found by an eight-year-old camping with his family
20 miles southwest of Cooper's suspected drop zone.
While playing by a river,
the boy uncovered almost $6,000 in rotting $20 bills.
Over the years, the FBI has had hundreds of suspects
but never managed to find their man
maybe the simple most compelling suspect
is a man named Richard Floyd McCoy.
Just four months after Dan Cooper's crime,
McCoy hijacked the exact same type of plane
and received $500,000 ransom
before jumping from the plane staircase over Utah
sound familiar?
But experts believe he was more likely
a copycat criminal than the same person.
McCoy was just 29 at the time
and Cooper was described as being in his 40s.
There's always a chance that more evidence
is eventually found
and if we're lucky one day this cursed case
may be solved once and for all
but until then we're simply left to wonder.
(gentle music)