The date was November 24, 1971. A man on a Boeing 727 flying from Portland, Oregon to Seattle passed a note to a stewardess. The note said "I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked."
Thus began the only unsolved airplane hijacking in US history. The man called himself Dan Cooper. He had done his homework, and had a plan to escape from the plane without getting caught. In fact, some speculate that he did just that, although the prevailing thought seems to be that he failed to survive his 10,000 foot parachute jump into a driving rainstorm.
The note demanded $200,000 and four parachutes. Once the actual existence of a bomb-looking device in a briefcase was established, the money and the parachutes were gotten together. The money, $200,000 in twenties, had all serial numbers recorded. Once the goods had been sent to the Seattle airport, Cooper gave the pilots permission to land.
Cooper had them dim the inside lights to deter a possible sniping. The plane taxied to a remote end of the runway and one person was instructed to deliver the ransom.
Cooper then had the 36 passengers released, and also had meals brought for the flight crew. The plane was refueled and then took off, with Cooper and the four-person flight team.
Cooper wanted to fly to Mexico City at an altitude of 10,000 feet at a slower-than-normal speed. But the pilot informed him that the plane would be sucking so much fuel at the low altitude that they only had a range of about 1,000 miles. So Cooper had them fly to Reno. When they crossed SW Washington, the crew felt a pressure change and saw a warning light come on. Cooper had dropped the rear-facing stairs at the back of the plane. A few minutes later, they heard a bump as the stairs bounced up against the plane as Cooper leapt from them. The crew flew on to Reno and landed.
Upon landing, the plane was rushed by the FBI, who confirmed that it was short one very significant passenger. Thus began a manhunt which continues today.
The SW Washington area was combed by the authorities, who found no trace of Cooper, his parachutes, or his cash. The area was quite wild and woolly, so searching was difficult. Cooper was smart enough to jump out during a rainstorm, making it impossible for tracking Air Force jets to see his parachute, so the area to be searched was quite large in scope.
Authorities interviewed a man by the name of D.B. Cooper, but quickly determined that he was not their hijacker. However, the name D.B. Cooper was repeated on newscasts and other media so many times that eventually Dan Cooper "became" D.B. Cooper.
Evidence of Cooper was finally found in 1978. A placard showing instructions for deploying the 727's rear stairs was discovered. It was from Cooper's plane.
But the real breakthrough discovery was made in 1980. Eight-year-old Brian Ingram found 294 bundled twenty dollar bills in shallow water in the Columbia River. The bills were badly deteriorated. And they had serial numbers which matched those of the ransom.
Did Cooper survive? Nowadays, most doubt it. His backup chute was a dummy, and the design of his main chute was such that only an expert could land without getting injured.
Cooper is popular nowadays. He's been featured in books, movies, TV shows, and the town of Ariel, Washington has an annual D.B. Cooper festival. Periodic findings of evidence put his name back in the news. For instance, in 2008, a parachute was discovered, but determined to not be his. Plus, his overall congenial treatment of the passengers and flight crew, and the fact that nobody was killed in the hijacking, make him almost admirable.
You gotta give him one thing: he had guts!
Comments (2)
Notice how many fads started in the 70s? Serial Killers, hi-jackers, lay-offs and factory closings, disco, escalating salaries in baseball, night baseball. What a decade, huh? Well, if you were too young to know the time, despite the down turn, it was a cool decade. It was not getting better, but it still had a lot of good in it. But those fads could be a nuisance. There so many little changes.
I created a database of about 8 streets in a neighborhood I lived in from 4-11 from 64-70. I gathered info from city directories from 50-80. It was fascinating to see the demographic trends. Women stopped calling themselves Mrs. Husband’s name and started using their own. Divorces become more common and less stigmatized. Mid 70s started 2 single people living together. It had been all families before that. Singles were few and only 1. You ended up married soon after graduation. In later 70, it suddenly became common to stop sending in directory info to the city.
IN something as small as a city directory, the changes taking place were unmistakable, loud, and clear. Hi-jacking planes was one of those many fads. I remember crime and violence becoming far more common and graphic in the 70s. 60s was pretty mild and tame. Dark Shadows had to be real careful about how far they went. The 70s demanded more realism and honesty about what was really going on in the world around them.
I watched a Brady Bunch episode last week for kicks one morning, half way between sleep and wake, and it was after Peter’s voice had broken quite a bit and Bobby and Cindy looked older. The show seemed rather quaint and innocent. As I watched, I realized that the Brady Bunch, which had been entertaining to me at 11, had begun to show its age when I was 13 or 14. Did I change that much in 2 to 3 years? Did the times change that much in that time? Or was the Brady Bunch out of touch, even when it began?
I think it was out of style even in late 69 or earl 70 when it began. That was the problem between the 50s and 70s. The 50s was unrealistic when it began. And the 70s were going too far or would shortly. I did change some in 2 or 3 years. I still watched the Brady Bunch but I made more fun of it. By 74, it reached its end. The time was just too different from the “reality” the Brady’s showed us.
DB Cooper was a sign of the times. But then again, so was Ted Bundy and Watergate. I sort of see the 70s like an old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs pops out from the ground to see where he was and replies, “I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.”
The Brady Bunch might have been outdated and unrealistic, but look how nice it was. In some odd ways, it sort of reflects about 10 years earlier. But what it reflected was a world so much more sane and gentle, save that JFK thing in 63. AS Ron notes about this site, JFK was a real change for the USA. We never really fully recovered. I think we were in denial but in the 70s we began to confront what we had been ignoring for 10 or 15 years after 63.
So the question if not whether DB Cooper lives or Elvis Lives. It is whether the beautiful time period we boomers knew lives or cold ever live again, or should we hold a wake for it? Does it still live in any of the boomers. I think it lives in a few who come here. But in the majority of my generation that I personally know, it seems most have been changed by the ever changing world and turned their back on what they knew and grew up with. Me, I guess I’ll be attending that wake. But I’ll never forget the wonderful time and childhood I had.
Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. At least we boomers have a contrast to compare.
Posted by Scott Irv | November 15, 2009 9:30 PM
Posted on November 15, 2009 21:30
I must have been watching to much mindless 60's sitcoms, I don't remember this! Oh...did I mention watching to much Bozo the Clown on TV? Lol!
Posted by Riversend | February 1, 2010 5:20 PM
Posted on February 1, 2010 17:20