40
O
n the afternoon of
24 November 24 1971,
an unidentified man in
his mid 40s, wearing a dark suit
and black clip-on tie and carrying
a black a briefcase, jumped into
criminal folklore. The man, who
later would be dubbed D.B. Cooper
by the press, boarded Northwest
Orient’s Flight 305 from Portland,
Oregon, to Seattle, Washington.
During the flight, he passed flight
attendant Florence Schaffner a note
telling her he had a bomb in his
case. After showing her the device,
he stated his demands: he wantedD.B. COOPER
The Northwest Orient Boeing 727
that D.B. Cooper hijacked is shown
here at Portland airport, Oregon, in- Its rear stairway is situated
directly underneath the tail.
four parachutes, a fuel truck
waiting for the plane when it
landed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport,
and $200,000 (£158,000) in $20
banknotes, or he would blow up the
plane. What happened later that
evening, though, is one of the most
perplexing mysteries in US
criminal history.Parachute escape
When the plane landed in Seattle,
Cooper allowed the passengers and
two of the three flight attendants to
leave. Officials handed over the
money and the parachutes. Cooper
ordered the pilots to fly towards
Mexico City at a maximum altitude
of 3,000 metres (10,000 ft) and at
the minimum airspeed possible
without stalling. About 45 minutes
into the flight south, he sent the
flight attendant to the cockpit and
put on his parachute. Somewhere
north of Portland he lowered therear stairs and jumped out of the
Boeing 727 and into the dark, rainy
night. He left behind two of the
parachutes and his tie.
The FBI launched a massive
manhunt and the military was
called in. Helicopters and a
thousand troops on foot searched
the area where they guessed
Cooper might have landed,
conducting door-to-door searches.
A military spy plane evenIN CONTEXT
LOCATION
Between Portland, Oregon,
and Seattle, Washington,
USTHEME
Aircraft hijackingBEFORE
31 October 1969 Raffaele
Minichiello, a decorated US
marine, hijacks a TWA flight
in Los Angeles and is
apprehended in Rome, Italy.AFTER
10 November 1972 Southern
Airways Flight 49 is hijacked
by three men who demand
$10 million (£8 million). They
are eventually apprehended in
Havana, Cuba.3 June 1972 Willie Roger
Holder hijacks Western
Airlines Flight 701 from Los
Angeles to Seattle, demanding
a $500,000 (£396,000) ransom
and the freedom of imprisoned
black activist Angela Davis.Back in the early ’70s, late
’60s, hijackings weren’t
uncommon. The philosophy of
the day was ‘Cooperate,
comply with his demands, and
we’ll deal with it when the
plane lands.’
Larry Carr038-043_DB_Cooper.indd 40 02/12/2016 14:40
41
photographed the Boeing 727’s
entire flight path. None of them
found anything.
All the authorities had to go on
was that the unidentified man had
apparently bought a ticket in the
name of either Dan or Dale Cooper.
When police interviewed the man
who sold the plane tickets that day,
they asked if any of the passengers
looked suspicious. Without
hesitating, he replied, “Yes, Dale
Cooper.” The police subsequently
told a reporter the suspect’s name
was “D. Cooper”. However, the
reporter, who didn’t quite catch the
name, asked “D or a B?” The police
officer responded, “Yes.” And thus
the legend of D.B. Cooper was born.Profiling Cooper
Schaffner gave police a physical
description of the hijacker – in his
mid 40s, between 1.7 metres (5 ft 10
inches) and and 2 metres (6 ft) tall,
77–81 kg (12–13 stone), and with
close-set brown eyes. She told
police that the hijacker was well-
spoken, polite, and calm. He was
a bourbon drinker, and paid his
drinks tab, even attempting to give
her the change. Schaffner also
disclosed that the hijacker asked ifBANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS
the flight crew wanted any food
during the stop at Seattle. He had
said that McChord Air Force Base
was a 20-minute drive away from
Seattle-Tacoma Airport – a detail
that most civilians would not have
known. His choice of plane – a
727-100 – was also ideal for a bail-
out escape. These factors indicated
that he may well have been an Air
Force veteran.
However, his lack of safety
equipment, thermal clothing, or
helmet, which would have afforded
him little protection from the -57°C
(-70°F) wind chill, seems to throw
doubt on the claim he was a
military man. FBI investigators at
the time of the incident argued
from the outset that he simply
would not have survived the jump.Money discovered
More than eight years later, in
February 1980, eight-year-old
Brian Ingram and his family were
picnicking by the Columbia River
close to the city of Vancouver,
Washington. As the family cleared
a spot for a campfire, Brian
unearthed a packet of money in the
sand near the river. His remarkable
find, totalling $5,800 (£4,590) in $20bills – of which he was allowed to
keep $2,850 (£2,460) – matched
the serial numbers of the ransom
money handed over to Cooper on
the tarmac in Seattle.
The FBI searched the beach and
dredged the river but found nothing
else. Nevertheless, the search
reignited the public’s interest in the
legend of D.B. Cooper, and in the
missing $144,200 (£114,000).
The D.B. Cooper hijacking had
all the ingredients of a legend – he
got away with it, no one was hurt,
and his fate remains a mystery.
Public interest was periodically
reinvigorated by news that the FBI
was still looking for D.B. Cooper. ❯❯Criminal profiling
Criminal profiling is the process of
identifying the most likely type of
person to have committed a
particular crime. Investigators
look at behaviour, personality
traits, and demographic variables,
including age, race, and location
to build up a psychological picture
of a suspect.
In the case of D.B. Cooper, his
knowledge of the aviation industry
and of the Boeing 727 suggest
that he may have spent time in
the Air Force, but his lack of
skydiving skills suggest that heworked as an ancillary aviation
worker, such as a cargo loader.
It is possible that he lost his job
during the economic downturn
in the aviation industry in
1970–71 and this provided the
financial motivation to commit
the crime.
The fact that the FBI could
not find anyone local who
disappeared from the area
shortly after the crime opens up
the tantalizing possibility that
D.B. Cooper may have been a
local man who simply returned
home and did his normal job as
usual on the Monday morning.The FBI produced a composite
drawing of D.B. Cooper in 1972
based on recollections of the crew
and his fellow passengers.I’m not so convinced that the
investigation is dead or this
story is over by any stretch.
Geoff Gray038-043_DB_Cooper.indd 41 02/12/2016 14:40