In 1971, DB Cooper hijacked a plane and demanded parachutes and money before jumping out of the aircraft and disappearing. The FBI continues to investigate the case, but Cooper’s true identity and fate remain unknown. The case led to reforms in the airline industry, including the creation of the Cooper vane.
DB Cooper is a man who staged a daring hijacking in 1971, culminating in his escape down the rear stairs of a Boeing 727 while the plane was in flight. Cooper was never arrested and the case, known as “Norjak” by the FBI, is one of the most interesting unsolved mysteries in American history. The FBI continues to investigate the case, and new information about DB Cooper was released in 2007, in hopes of solving the case once and for all.
On November 24, 1971, Dan Cooper boarded a plane flying from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. Once the plane was airborne, he passed a message to a stewardess, indicating that he had a bomb and that the plane had been hijacked. He asked for four parachutes and US$200,000, which Northwest Orient, the airline operating the flight, agreed to provide after lengthy negotiations as the plane flew over Puget Sound.
At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Cooper released the flight’s passengers while the money and parachutes were loaded and the plane was refueled. He asked to be flown to Mexico City, and after being informed by the flight crew that the plane would not be able to travel that distance, he settled in Reno, Nevada. Cooper also asked to leave the cabin without pressure, suggesting that he might try to escape the plane during the flight.
At 8:13, DB Cooper did just that, lowering the rear stairs of the aircraft and leaping out, never to be seen again. His jump went unnoticed by Air Force jets following the plane, and the precise location of his intended landing was difficult to ascertain. Despite over a year of searching the region where he disappeared, DB Cooper was never seen again, although some of the money was found in the 1980s.
Cooper is believed to have probably died in his attempt, as he was ill-suited for skydiving, and visibility conditions that night were poor, which would have made a controlled landing difficult to manage. The name “Dan Cooper” was clearly an alias, and despite releasing pictures of Cooper and later using DNA testing to try to identify him, the FBI has never been able to figure out who DB Cooper really was. , not to mention what happened to him.
The DB Cooper case sparked a series of emulation attempts, along with some reforms in the airline industry, including the Cooper vane, a device that prevents aircraft stairs from opening while the aircraft is in flight.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
