Video: 'The Skyjacker That Got Away - D. B. Cooper Documentary'
(Thanksgiving eve, Wednesday, November 24, 1971, approximately 3:00 p.m. PST) — Shortly after a 2:50 p.m. PST takeoff from Portland, Oregon, a man calling himself “Dan Cooper” (but who became popularly known as “D.B. Cooper”) whispered to a flight attendant aboard Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 today that “I have a bomb.”
After showing the fight attendant a bomb and landing in Seattle (at 5:39 p.m. PST), Cooper would extort $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,278,000 in 2020) and four parachutes (two primary and two reserve), release the passengers and order to the crew to fly to Mexico City with a refueling stop in Reno.
Video: 'Original D.B Cooper News Cast 1971'
At 7:36 p.m. PST, the Boeing 727 took off from Seattle. While flying at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet, Cooper parachuted from the back staircase of the aircraft (at 8:13 p.m. PST) during a heavy rain storm to an uncertain fate over the Lewis River in southwestern Washington.
Available evidence and a preponderance of expert opinion suggests that Cooper probably did not survive his high-risk jump, but the FBI would maintain an active investigation for 45 years after the hijacking.
The crime remains the only unsolved air piracy in commercial aviation history.
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