The advent of new technologies and DNA testing has resulted in renewed efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to solve the 36-year-old mystery of the D.B. Cooper skyjacker case.
"Who was Cooper? Did he survive the jump? And what happened to the loot, only a small part of which has ever surfaced," reads a recent press release by the FBI. "Would we still like to get our man? Absolutely. And we have reignited the case—thanks to a Seattle case agent named Larry Carr."
This case first began on November 24, 1971, when a man who identified himself on travel documents as Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, in route from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. Shortly after the flight took off Cooper handed a female flight attendant a note that read "I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked."
Cooper had on his possession a briefcase that contained numerous wires, dynamite-like sticks and a large battery.
Cooper demanded $200,000, made up of all $20 bills with random serial numbers and four parachutes. He then instructed the pilot to circle over Puget Sound. Later that day, upon hearing confirmation from the pilot that his demands had been met, Cooper instructed him to land at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where he exchanged the passengers for the ransom. Afterward cooper ordered the pilot to fly the jet toward Reno, Nevada. Per his instructions the plane was to fly at a speed of 170 knots and an altitude of less than 10,000 feet, some 15,000 feet below the planes normal cruising altitude.
Once the plane was back in the air, Cooper ordered a stewardess who remained on board to go into the cockpit. Shortly thereafter, approximately 25 miles north of Portland, the pilot observed a warning light on his console that the jets aft door had been opened. The flight crew decided not to investigate whether Cooper had jumped and the jet later landed in Reno, Nevada, where their suspicions were confirmed. While there was no doubt Cooper had jumped, his exact landing zone remained a mystery and could only be based on the pilots account of when the jet door had been opened.
Despite massive ground searches of Ariel, Wash., and the Lake Merwin Dam of the Lewis River, no trace of evidence was found and the case remained a mystery.
The first break in the case came in February 1980, when an eight-year-old boy who was picnicking with his family found $5,800 in decaying bills on the banks of the Columbia River. Serial numbers on the bills later confirmed they were from of Coopers ransom money, however despite thorough searches of the area no other evidence was found to suggest what happened to the remaining bills or Cooper himself.
Within the press release, the FBI provided a series of pictures and information on the case that had not previously been released.
"We originally thought Cooper was an experienced jumper, perhaps even a paratrooper," Special Agent Carr said. "We concluded after a few years this was simply not true. No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky. He also missed that his reserve chute was only for training and had been sewn shut—something a skilled skydiver would have checked."
Carr also dismayed suspicions that Cooper had an accomplice on the ground, citing that he had no way of relaying flight coordinates to anyone.
In regards to a physical description, Carr said:
"The two flight attendants who spent the most time with him on the plane were interviewed separately the same night in separate cities and gave nearly identical descriptions. They both said he was about 5'10" to 6', 170 to 180 pounds, in his mid-40s, with brown eyes. People on the ground who came into contact with him also gave very similar descriptions."
Despite several people who have claimed to be D.B. Cooper, the FBI claims all of them have been ruled out through evidence uncovered in the investigations or through DNA testing.
Special Agent Carr does not think Cooper survived the jump and believes his body is somewhere in the foothills of Washington.
"Diving into the wilderness without a plan, without the right equipment, in such terrible conditions, he probably never even got his chute open," Carr said.
Nonetheless, it is one mystery he would like to solve and he is hoping advancements in technology or renewed publicity in the case will jar someone's memory
"Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream. Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle."
Anyone with information on this case is urged to contact the FBI's Seattle field office at (206) 622-0460 or via email at fbise@leo.gov.