In 1971 one of the most infamous skyjackings in commercial aviation occurred in Seattle. This crime was committed by
a man using the indentity of D. B. Cooper.
D. B. Cooper originally used Dan Cooper as his false identity . D. B. Cooper was the name that accidentally went out on the news
and the name stayed with the case.
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On Thanksgiving Eve 1971, a Boeing 727 was on the runway
preparing to make a routine run from Portland to Seattle. This was usually a thirty five minute flight, but instead would last two hours with Cooper holding the plane and passengers hostage.
After take off , Cooper quietly
slipped a note to a stewardess saying
he had a bomb on board and would detonate it unless he was given 4 parachutes and 200,000 dollars in unmarked bills.
Cooper seemed to display an advanced knowledge of the 727. Ralph Himellsback was the FBI agent assigned to the case. Himellsback felt Copper appeared to have a military back ground and a high degree of pilot training.
On arriving at Sea-Tac International Airport the passengers were allowed to disembark and the money was
delivered. The serial numbers had already been recorded by the FBI.
The plane took off again at 7:36 P M.
Shortly after take off Cooper ordered the crew to remain in the front compartment of the plane.
About five minutes after this the crew felt a sudden loss of cabin pressure, meaning Cooper had open the rear hatch to the stairs.
No one actually saw Cooper parachute out of the plane, but he picked the perfect place to hide when he landed.
He selected the Merwin dam area located in Oregon to parachute into. This area is comprised of extremely rough terrain and large boggy areas . It would be very difficult to conduct a ground search in this dam and lake area.
Also Cooper parachuted out of the plane at night. Merwin Dam, which had lights across the entire dam and were constantly lit, provided Cooper the perfect landmark. By seeing the lit dam, Cooper would have known exactly were he was.
Cooper also display an advanced understanding of parachutes and how to use them, having chosen military chutes and also a more compact, lighter type of equipment.
Most experts on parachutes felt that if Cooper was able to pull the rip cord and cleared the plane, he probably survived the jump and landing.
Survival Experts also felt Cooper could have survived indefinitely in the wooded area with plenty of water and vegetation .
Cooper seemed to know a great deal about operating a 727. When the plane took off again he ordered the wing flaps set at 15 degrees and the landing gear lowered creating more drag on the plane slowing it down .This created a more suitable parachuting situation. Had the plane been going faster he probably would have been ripped apart.
The 727 was used extensively in Viet Nam for airlifts, and medi-vac of the wounded to hospitals, leading investigators to believe he was possibly a pilot during the Viet Nam war years.
In 1980 a boy digging in the sand by the Columbia river found 5000 dollars in the mud.
This was traced to the marked bills Cooper was carrying.
This was the only money ever to surface of the 200,000 dollars .
Little known facts about the case.
The authorities felt for quite a while that D. B. Copper and the Zodiac Killer were one and the same person due to similarities in the cases. Several people were actually investigated on these grounds.
D. B. Cooper completely disappeared after he parachuted from the aircraft, and only the 5000 dollars found near the Columbia river was ever recovered. No other marked bills ever surfaced.
Coopers remains were never found and neither was a parachute in the area where he supposedly landed.
If Cooper wasn't killed by the jump and landing, and the marked bills never were recovered , nor his parachute, then what did happen to D. B. Cooper?
By
Kenneth Lafler.
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