Fifty years later, the mystery of the DB Cooper hijacker<

Advertisement

Certain names resonate in the folklore of every nation. In France, that of DB Cooper is not well known. In the United States, on the other hand, this pseudonym has been firmly anchored in the memories for 50 years. Its history, and the mystery that surrounds it, fascinates. Half a century later, DB Cooper remains the only hijacker who has escaped the authorities of the country of Uncle Sam, recalls the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Wednesday, November 24, 1971: on the eve of Thanksgiving, Northwest Orient Airlines flight 305 was to take off in the afternoon from Portland (Oregon) to Seattle (Washington). Some 200 kilometers separate the two cities. For the 36 passengers and six crew members, the flight should only last about thirty minutes. Eventually it will be different.

Among the passengers is a certain Dan Cooper – this is the name displayed on his ticket: the witnesses will describe him as a white man in his forties, dressed in a suit and tie, wearing sunglasses black. The passenger orders a bourbon-soda and smokes cigarettes. A routine theft, in short, until it turns into a hostage situation.

A mysterious passenger parachutes with a fortune in his pocket

Shortly after takeoff, the man hands a piece of paper to Florence Schaffner, one of the flight attendants. Thinking that the individual wants to flirt and give him his phone number, the hostess puts the paper in her bag without reading it. The man then whispers to her, "Ma'am, you'd better look at this note. I have a bomb." He opens his briefcase and shows Schaffner what looks like an explosive device.

The paper will never be found since Dan Cooper recovered it. But Florence Schaffner will affirm that it was written, in capital letters, that the passenger was in possession of a bomb, that he demanded that the hostess take a seat next to him and that the plane was now hijacked, as well as reports Rolling Stone.

Schaffner informs the captain of the pirate's demands: a ransom of 200,000 US dollars (that's more than 1.3 million dollars today, taking inflation into account), four parachutes and a tank truck on the tarmac at Seattle airport, in order to refuel the Boeing 727. Warned, the authorities and the president of Northwest Orient Airlines acceded to these requests.

Once in Seattle, the exchange takes place: the 35 passengers and two crew members – including Florence Schaffner – are freed, while Cooper recovers the money and the parachutes. The plane took off again in the early evening for Mexico City, with the remaining crew members and Cooper on board. The latter will be described as very calm, courteous and master of events.

Cooper will not reach Mexico. Around 8 p.m., he ordered the crew to lock themselves in the cockpit and open the stairway door at the rear of the aircraft. The plane is 3,000 meters high when the pirate jumps into the void, with the ransom and a parachute on him, and disappears into the night. At the airport in Reno (Nevada), where the plane finally landed, the police are deployed, in case the criminal bluffed and stayed on board. The excavations give nothing: Cooper has indeed vanished.

The FBI gives up trying to solve the Cooper case, 45 years later

A gigantic manhunt is immediately launched. For weeks, Cooper is hunted. His composite portrait is displayed and a reward is promised for any information leading to his capture. But nothing helps: the hijacker is not found. The search area is uncertain, extended over several thousand kilometers, and many questions remain unanswered. No one knows if he even survived his jump. However, no body was found.

Nothing like a little #tuckpointing on a 95 degree day. 😓 The guys from Approved Home Improvements are working har… https://t.co/joh1VNWLSi

— Matt Chambers Mon Aug 24 19:10:45 +0000 2020

The FBI investigated for years, then decades, the case codenamed NORJAK. Hundreds of people are interviewed. Private detectives and passionate citizens also get involved. Tracks are explored, suspects are identified. A journalist named DB Cooper is once suspected of being the man everyone is looking for. This track will prove to be false, but too late: for the American media, the hacker who hijacked flight 305 will remain wrongly designated under the pseudonym of DB Cooper.

Only one formal proof will be found, almost nine years after this tumultuous day. In February 1980, Brian Ingram, an 8-year-old boy, discovered three largely disintegrated wads of bills on a sandbar along the Columbia River. Scans and serial numbers will confirm that these are notes from the ransom given to DB Cooper. It's $5,800. For the FBI, this finding accredits the theory that Cooper killed himself by jumping from the plane. But that's far from enough to close the investigation.

Advances in science and technology also do not make it possible to determine the identity and fate of the culprit. Suspects and fabricators are only dismissed. Finally, on July 12, 2016, the FBI officially threw in the towel. "After one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in (its) history", the agency announces that it has exhausted all leads and is giving up trying to solve the DB Cooper case.

New security procedures in planes and airports

Beyond the mystery that forged its legend, DB Cooper caused serious changes in civil aviation. Like the attacks of September 11, 2001, there was a before and an after DB Cooper. The ease with which this man, alone, hijacked the Portland-Seattle flight before fleeing served as a lesson.

The most significant advance is the creation of what has been called "Cooper's wing", a mechanical wedge that prevents an aircraft's stairway door from opening in flight. It was through this exit that Cooper exited the Boeing and parachuted.

Another invention to see the light of day soon after: the appearance of a peephole at the cockpit door, so that the crew at the controls can have an eye on the passengers. Those of flight 305, locked in the cockpit, had not been able to see the last moments of DB Cooper on board before his parachuting, although they understood his escape when the sirens signaled the opening of the door-staircase.

It was also from the 1970s that controls were tightened before boarding. Today, with metal detectors, it seems very unlikely that a passenger could get on board with a bomb… although it is still impossible to say with certainty that Cooper carried one in his briefcase, he 50 years ago.

In American popular culture, the DB Cooper story has taken hold among contemporary legends. The ransom without violence, the spectacular escape and the defeat of the FBI have nourished novels, fictions, documentaries and musical winks on many occasions.

Several series have also mentioned the case. She is briefly mentioned in "Breaking Bad" when lawyer Saul Goodman meets chemist Walter White. As the latter tries to hide his identity behind dark sunglasses, Saul Goodman asks sarcastically, "Should I call the FBI and tell them we found DB Cooper?"

The writers of "Prison Break" have integrated DB Cooper into the center of their plot of the first two seasons: in a largely reworked version of the story, the hijacker hides under the identity of prisoner Charles Westmoreland , and his hidden hoard is an essential component of Michael Scofield's escape plan.

Finally, the Cooper mystery is squarely solved by the FBI in the "Numb3rs" series. A fictional scenario that has never joined reality. The real DB Cooper, if he is still alive, still runs.

The summary of the week France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 app