He bought a one-way ticket, ordered a bourbon, then hijacked a plane with a bomb in his briefcase. But unlike other sky pirates, D.B. Cooper (though some say it was Dan) wasn't interested in a glamorous getaway or a political statement. He just wanted the cash – and then he vanished like a magician's trick gone spectacularly wrong.
The Daring Act:
It was November 24th, 1971. A seemingly ordinary man named Dan Cooper (though the news media fumbled the name) boarded a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle. Mid-flight, he casually slipped a note to a flight attendant claiming to have a bomb and demanding $200,000 in ransom (worth over $1.5 million today) and four parachutes. Talk about a turbulence-inducing surprise!
A Smooth Getaway (Almost):
After landing in Seattle and releasing the passengers, Cooper ordered the plane to refuel and take off again, this time with only the crew on board. He then instructed them to fly at a low altitude and a slow speed – prime conditions for a daring jump. Somewhere over the rugged wilderness between Washington and Oregon, Cooper donned a parachute, grabbed the cash, and leaped out of the plane, never to be seen again.
The Search Goes Cold:
Despite an extensive FBI investigation dubbed "NORJAK" (Northwest Hijacking), Cooper vanished without a trace. The only clue ever found was a small portion of the ransom money recovered along the Columbia River years later. Theories abound: Did he survive the jump? Was he a seasoned criminal or a desperate man driven to the edge?
The Enduring Enigma:
The D.B. Cooper case remains one of the FBI's oldest unsolved mysteries, a captivating tale of audacious crime and baffling disappearance. It's a constant reminder that sometimes, the most shocking stories don't have neat endings, leaving us to ponder the "who" and "where" of a man who literally dropped out of the sky and into the annals of aviation infamy.
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