Solving an Unsolved Mystery

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The Twist in the Tale

Solving an unsolved mystery.

    November 24^th 1971 was just like any other Wednesday at the Portland Oregon Airport. Not particularly busy on domestic flights, so Dan Cooper had little wait time in buying his one way ticket to Seattle Washington. Dan Cooper was never planning to return. His identity documents would later prove to be fakes. Security was a tad lighter in 1971 than today.

     In 1971 he did not have to concern himself with CCTV cameras. Even so he had timed his arrival to the last minute before the announcement to board his flight. A busy period for staff, he had correctly calculated they would be too busy to take much notice of individual passengers.

    All the Airport staff including the Flight on duty that day were later to describe Cooper as a well-dressed clean shaven man wearing sunglasses, his appearance suggesting his age was around the mid 40’s. His suit colour did vary with many of the descriptions. This non descript appearance is no doubt the reason the Flight attendant did not feel there was something suspicious when he sat next to her during the take off. Wrong.

    This changed very quickly when Cooper handed her a note and told her to read it. No further verbal conversation took place. The note indicated he had a bomb in his briefcase which he opened to show to the Attendant. It also stated he would blow up the plane unless he received $200,000 and several parachutes when they landed in Seattle.

    The Pilot radioed the demands to the Air Traffic Control Tower. All Cooper’s demands were met, the money and the parachutes were loaded onto the plane. All the other passengers were allowed to leave as were the Flight Attendants. The flight crew remained on the plane.

    Cooper’s instructions to the pilot were to fly under 10,000 feet and set a course to Mexico City. The wing flaps were to be set at 15degrees a sure indication Cooper was familiar with the aircraft. Further proof came when he told the pilot to unlock the door to the rear stairway. This particular type of aircraft was the only commercial plane with a rear stairway you could use to exit the plane. During the night flight the plane had a distinct jump in height indicating considerable weight had been jettisoned and in a flash Cooper had gone. No more instructions were heard and on landing in Reno Nevada it was obvious Cooper, the parachutes and the money had all disappeared.

    The investigating team, reporters from all over the USA and a public eager to be part of this brilliantly executed crime, had gathered on the tarmac to greet the arrival of the aircraft.

   This brazen hijack became a case for the FBI. The tools they had to work with involved an evaluation of who Dan Cooper may be.

   A typo by a journalist in the early stages of reporting the crime is the impetus for Dan becoming DB. This has stuck throughout the 52 years since the crime.

   Comparing DB with a French fictional detective hero by the same name became the focus for the FBI for some time. One theory advanced was that DB did the crime just to prove it could be done. Support for this theory is that none of the numbered banknotes have ever surfaced.  The exception being $5,800 being washed up on the banks of the Columbia River in 1980.

    Perhaps Dan has a peculiar sense of humour and it took his fancy to stir up the mystery after a nine year hiatus.

    This points us in a direction that actually supports rather than decries the ‘just because he could’ scenario.

     Being familiar with aircraft, or at the very least with the type of aircraft he had absconded from, is undeniable. Flying lower than 10,000 feet stymied the use of radar to track a plane in flight in 1971. Insinuating he would be using several parachutes for the money, and obviously for himself, also indicated Cooper’s familiarity with their usage. One theory was advanced which sent the FBI checking through US Army Paratrooper’s personnel files. It proved to be nothing more than speculation. It proved fruitless.

    Search after search along the flight pattern between Seattle and towards Mexico City failed to find any trace of DB Cooper’s body or the money except for that discovery nine years later in 1980 of the  $5,800 of the numbered bank notes washed up onto the bank of the Columbia River. This waterway would have been flown over by Cooper’s plane on his flight, so authorities had divers search the area. Unsuccessfully.

    Quite often the most obvious solution to a crime is the answer.

    Even Blind Freddy would have realised the banknotes would be marked.  Someone with the smarts of DB Cooper would have foreseen this and taken action to prevent it.  Of course if he actually had no plans to spend the money that scenario was unnecessary.

    Jumping out of the aircraft at night with no real sense of where he was or where he could land does not make sense. However his smoke and mirror tricks worked, setting the scene first by being seen with a parachute on his back then jettisoning the extra parachutes to enforce the fact he had jumped. The pilot reported the plane reacted noticeably at one stage indicating a significant weight loss and the rear stairs were down. Another visual fact, together with the parachutes and money missing, combine to further enforce the belief DB Cooper had jumped. In a flash he was gone into the night in their minds.

      He did not jump!

    No. DB Cooper was still on the plane, not quite in plain sight, but close. He had calculated that the plane would be overrun with officials and reporters from the time it came to a stop. Another person appearing from the toilet cubicle would not raise questions and he became one of the throng who had pushed and shoved their way onto the plane. The dapper DB Cooper was now dressed in a suit of a different colour, the same suit inside out indicating he had thought of every detail. Due to the bulging pockets of banknotes he also looked a far more portly figure. He slowly made his way off the aircraft to the arrivals lounge, and caught a transfer to the Overseas Terminal. Did Paris await?

     What was the worst that could happen?

     If he got caught he would plead diminished responsibility, it was a joke. He was prepared to serve a short sentence if, and it is a big if, France would grant extradition of a ‘comic book hero’. In any case the statute of limitations on hijacking expires after 12 years in the USA. DB had either died by then, or if still alive had obviously decided it would be more interesting to leave his crime as one of the great unsolved mysteries.

    His briefcase contained $5800 and the fake bomb when he threw it out of the plane. He left the case undone, hoping the notes would be found therefore extending the mystery. That certainly worked for the comic book hero from France, DB Cooper.

Case solved.