Cooper, D. B., is the name given an unidentified passenger who hijacked (seized) a commercial airliner in 1971. The man disappeared immediately afterward and was never found. The hijacking remains among the most famous unsolved crimes in United States history. The man purchased his airline ticket under the name Dan Cooper, but law enforcement officials suspect that name was fake. The news media made popular the initials D. B. after reporters misheard the alias (fake name) over the radio.
The hijacking occurred on Nov. 24, 1971. Cooper boarded a flight from Portland , Oregon, to Seattle , Washington, with a one-way ticket. During the flight, he handed a flight attendant a note claiming that he had a bomb. He demanded $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes, taking the 36 other passengers hostage . When the plane landed in Seattle, Cooper exchanged the passengers for the money and parachutes. He then ordered the flight crew to fly to Mexico City . Once the plane was in the air, Cooper strapped on a parachute. He jumped out the back of the plane with the money, vanishing into the night.
Cooper was described as a quiet man in his mid-40’s. He wore a black business suit, white shirt, black tie, and black sunglasses. Within a few years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had investigated more than 800 people in connection with the crime. Though several were seriously considered as suspects, none was ever identified as the hijacker.
Over the years, several intriguing clues have been found in and around the area where Cooper jumped from the airplane. In 1980, a boy found a package along the Columbia River containing $5,800. The serial numbers of the bills in the package matched the numbers of bills given to Cooper on the day of the hijacking. Several parachutes and parachute parts have also been found in the area.
Many experts think that Cooper did not survive his jump from the airplane. He jumped into a thunderstorm, wearing only a business suit in freezing temperatures, and would have landed in a heavily wooded area at night. The FBI officially closed its investigation of the case in 2016.
