D. B. Cooper

D. B. Cooper is the alias used by an unidentified man who hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight in 1971, extorted $200,000, and escaped by parachute. His identity and fate remain unknown.

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Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305: A Boeing 727 flight from Portland to Seattle hijacked by D. B. Cooper on November 24, 1971. This was the aircraft Cooper took over and later left by parachute.
Tena Bar money find: A 1980 discovery of $5,800 in ransom bills buried along the Columbia River near Vancouver, Washington. The bills were traced to Cooper’s ransom, but their location did not explain how they arrived there.
D. B. Cooper suspects: People proposed as possible identities of the unidentified hijacker, without a definitive identification. Suspect theories persist because no candidate has been conclusively tied to all the evidence.
Skyjacking: The unlawful seizure of an aircraft, typically by force or threat. Cooper’s escape became an unusually elusive episode in the history of aircraft hijackings.
Boeing 727: A three-engine jet airliner whose rear airstair could be lowered during flight. Cooper used the 727’s rear airstair to jump with the ransom.
FBI files on D. B. Cooper: Investigative records documenting the FBI’s search for the hijacker and evidence connected to the case. The files preserve the evidence, leads, and changing conclusions behind the investigation.
D. B. Cooper ransom money: The $200,000 in marked twenty-dollar bills handed to Cooper during the hijacking. Only $5,800 of the ransom was found, leaving most of the money unaccounted for.
Aviation security: Measures intended to protect aircraft, passengers, and airports from unlawful interference. The hijacking intensified attention to passenger screening and aircraft vulnerability.
Tina Mucklow: A flight attendant on Flight 305 who negotiated with Cooper and relayed his demands. Her account established how Cooper communicated his ransom and aircraft requirements.
Richard McCoy: An American pilot and convicted skyjacker who escaped a 1972 hijacking by parachute. His similar crime prompted comparisons, but investigators found evidence against identifying him as Cooper.