The FBI has released files related to DB Cooper’s case. The files give some insight into the mysterious plane hijacking incident that happened in 1971. The DB Cooper remains the only unsolved case in the history of air piracy in the U.S.
DB Cooper’s case remains a mystery to date, decades after the hijacking was executed. On 24 November 1971, a flight attendant named Florence Schaffner was given a note by a passenger onboard a flight. The Northwest Orient Airlines was scheduled to fly from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington.
The note explained that the passenger was carrying a bomb and instructed Florence to take a seat next to him. The man then proceeded to open his suitcase to put the bomb on full display. He made his demands clear, one of them being to get paid $200,000 in exchange for everyone’s safety.
He also asked for 4 parachutes and demanded that all passengers stay seated while the plane was being refueled in Seattle. After reaching Seattle, the authorities complied with the hijackers’ demands. He let 36 passengers disembark in exchange for the money and parachutes.
He then asked the pilots to fly the plane towards Mexico. As the plane was flying steadily towards the route, the man jumped off the plane with the money in tow. New reports released by the FBI revealed the intense investigation that followed. The files detail how several individuals suspected of being the hijackers were brought in.
“A man confined to a wheelchair did not hijack the plane in this case,” one of the files reveals. The man who hijacked the Boeing plane booked the ticket under the name Dan Cooper. His real name remains unknown to date.
He was described to be a dark-skinned man in his 40s. The FBI has been on a manhunt for decades with no promising leads. An Alabama man who died of cancer a while after the incident, airline pilots, and even Boeing employees were suspected to the hijacker.
ON THIS DAY 🗓️:
On November 24th 1971, DB Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft.
He extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,285,866 in 2020).
After parachuting away, he was never seen again.
It remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in commercial aviation history. pic.twitter.com/KmMSVSNpz9
— LADbible (@ladbible) November 24, 2020
A man named Donald Sylvester Murphy has previously claimed to be the plane hijacker. The man made the claim to a former Newsweek editor. This was later reported to be an elaborate scheme to get the editor to pay $30,000. The man was impersonating the hijacker to get a paycheck out of the editor.
A document shared how the man posed for pictures “wearing a wig and glasses and otherwise appearing much like the widely circulated ‘artist’s conception’ of ‘D.B. Cooper.’” The claim remained just that, a claim. Murphy was convicted and sent to prison for fraud in 1973, according to The New York Times.
