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On November 24, 1971, an unidentified man using the alias Dan Cooper, later and better known as D.

Cooper, hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft flying from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington. Cooper told the flight crew he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,600,000 in 2025) and four parachutes upon landing in Seattle. After releasing the passengers in Seattle, Cooper directed the crew to refuel the aircraft and begin a second flight to Mexico City, with a refueling stop in Reno, Nevada. After taking off from Seattle, Cooper opened the aircraft's aft door, deployed the airstair, and parachuted to an uncertain fate over a remote, heavily wooded area of Southwest Washington. For 45 years after the hijacking, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) maintained an active investigation and built an extensive case file but did not reach any definitive conclusions about Cooper's identity. Cooper's hijacking—and several imitators (known as the D. The Cooper hijacking remains the only documented unsolved case of air piracy in the history of commercial aviation.

Including Cooper, Flight 305 had 36 passengers aboard and a crew of six: Captain William A. Shortly after takeoff, Cooper handed a note to flight attendant Schaffner, who was sitting in the jump seat at the rear of the airplane, directly behind Cooper. With Schaffner in the cockpit, flight attendant Mucklow sat next to Cooper to act as a liaison between him and the flight crew. Cooper made additional demands through Mucklow: upon landing at Sea-Tac, fuel trucks must meet the plane, and all passengers must remain seated while Mucklow brought the money aboard the plane. Cooper said he would release the passengers after he had the money. When Mucklow told Cooper the parachutes were coming from McChord Air Force Base, Cooper correctly noted McChord was only a 20-minute drive from Sea-Tac. When Mucklow returned to sit with Cooper, he said, "If that is a sky marshal, I don't want any more of that," but Mucklow reassured Cooper no sky marshals were on the flight.

When Mucklow brought the final parachute to Cooper, she gave him printed instructions for using the parachutes, but Cooper said he did not need them.

During the hijacking, Cooper demanded and was given two main parachutes and two reserve parachutes. When the aircraft landed in Reno, FBI agents discovered two parachutes Cooper left behind: one reserve (front) parachute and one main (back) parachute.

Bill Mitchell, who sat across from Cooper, said the sketch was good from the mouth up, but felt the sketch made Cooper look too young..

University of Oregon student Bill Mitchell, who sat across from Cooper during the three-hour flight, gave the FBI several interviews and provided detailed descriptions of Cooper for what subsequently became Composite Sketch B. Mitchell's descriptions of Cooper were similar to those provided by the flight attendants, except Mitchell described Cooper as 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) to 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m).

Mucklow said Cooper "appeared to be completely familiar with the parachutes which had been furnished to him", and told a journalist that "Cooper put on parachute as though he did so every day." Based on Cooper's familiarity with the military-style parachutes he was given, FBI investigators have speculated Cooper was a military parachutist and not a civilian skydiver.

McCoy's photo was also shown to the ticket agent who sold Cooper his ticket, the gate agent, and the passenger seated closest to Cooper (Bill Mitchell), and they too concluded that McCoy and Cooper were not the same.

Cooper investigators observed his physical resemblance to Cooper composite sketches even though he was only 28 in 1971, military parachute training, and criminal record but eliminated him as a suspect in 1979 after no direct evidence of his involvement could be found.

Quick Facts

• Cooper, hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft flying from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington.
• Cooper told the flight crew he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,600,000 in 2025) and four parachutes upon landing in Seattle.
• When Mucklow told Cooper the parachutes were coming from McChord Air Force Base, Cooper correctly noted McChord was only a 20-minute drive from Sea-Tac.
• Shortly after takeoff, Cooper handed a note to flight attendant Schaffner, who was sitting in the jump seat at the rear of the airplane, directly behind Cooper.
• After releasing the passengers in Seattle, Cooper directed the crew to refuel the aircraft and begin a second flight to Mexico City, with a refueling stop in Reno, Nevada.

Source material: Wikipedia - "D. B. Cooper". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.