D.B. Cooper and the Hijacking of Flight 305

On the afternoon of 24 November 1971, the day before Thanksgiving, a man who bought a ticket under the name Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 in Portland, Oregon, for a short flight to Seattle. He was described as a calm man in his mid-forties, wearing a dark suit and tie. Shortly after take-off, he handed a note to a flight attendant, told her he had a bomb and showed her what appeared to be one inside his briefcase.

Cooper demanded $200,000 in cash and four parachutes, to be delivered on landing in Seattle. The aircraft circled while the FBI and the airline gathered the money and parachutes. After landing, Cooper released the 36 passengers and some of the crew in exchange for the money and parachutes, then ordered the aircraft to take off again for Mexico City, with a refuelling stop in Reno, and gave specific instructions on speed, altitude and configuration.

Soon after leaving Seattle, with the crew confined to the cockpit, Cooper lowered the aircraft’s rear airstair in flight. The crew noticed a change in cabin pressure at around 8 p.m. When the aircraft landed at Reno, Cooper was gone, along with the money and two of the parachutes. A mistaken early news report gave his name as D.B. Cooper, and the name stuck.

The FBI gathered extensive evidence from the aircraft and the witnesses. Cooper left behind a clip-on tie, cigarette butts and other items, and the crew gave detailed descriptions that produced the well-known composite sketches. The serial numbers of the ransom bills had been recorded before delivery, allowing any recovered money to be matched to the hijacking.

The key physical find came in February 1980, when a boy on a family outing at Tena Bar on the Columbia River, downstream of Vancouver, Washington, dug up bundles of decaying twenty-dollar bills. The serial numbers matched the ransom. About $5,800 was recovered. Although searches of the area followed, no more money, no parachute and no human remains were found.

Other evidence has been studied in later years. The FBI obtained a partial DNA profile from the tie, and independent researchers working with the Bureau’s permission have examined particles on the tie in an effort to identify where its owner may have worked. Such analyses have produced suggestions but no identification.

The FBI’s investigation, codenamed NORJAK, was one of the longest and most extensive in the Bureau’s history. Agents examined hundreds of suspects over the years, compared fingerprints and handwriting, and followed thousands of leads. No suspect was ever charged, and the FBI has never publicly identified Cooper.

In July 2016, the FBI announced that it was ending the active investigation and redirecting resources to other priorities. It said it would still consider specific physical evidence related to the parachutes or the money. The Bureau has also said that it considered it likely that Cooper did not survive the jump, given the weather, the terrain and his apparent lack of suitable equipment, but it has not closed the question of his identity.

The main debate is whether Cooper survived. Many investigators have argued that he probably died: he jumped at night into rain and cold over rugged, forested terrain, in clothing unsuited to the conditions and without any sign of a prepared landing plan. Others argue that the precision of his instructions, including the choice of aircraft configuration and the request for multiple parachutes, suggests a knowledgeable person who planned well enough to survive.

The Tena Bar money has generated competing scenarios. It may have been carried by the river from a landing site upstream, buried by a person, or deposited by dredging operations that moved river material in the area. Each explanation has supporters and difficulties, and none has been confirmed. Over the decades many people have been proposed as Cooper by writers, relatives and amateur investigators, but none has been charged or officially identified, and such claims should be treated as unproven.