Hi there, the same rules apply here as the True crime from around the world book, if I couldn't find a true crime case, it was replaced by a plane crash.
This case takes us to the state of Oregon, which is located next to the following states: Washington, Idaho, California and Nevada.
WARNINGS OF A PLANE HIJACKING
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Pictured above is the famed D.B Cooper.
Pictured below is the aircraft involved in the hijacking.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
D.B Cooper is a media epithet that refers to an unidentified man who hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, registered as November 467 Uniform Sierra (N467US), a Boeing 727 aircraft operated by Northwest Orient Airlines, in United States airspace on the 24th of November 1971.
The aircraft was flying from Portland International Airport (IATA: PDX, ICAO: KPDX), Portland, Oregon to Seattle Tacoma International Airport (IATA: SEA, ICAO: KSEA), Seattle, Washington, when the hijacker ordered $200,000 in ransom money (equivalent to $1,338,000 in 2021), once the plane landed in Seattle, he also demanded a parachute along with the ransom money, he released the passengers in Seattle and forced the crew to refuel the plane and take off again, he wanted to go to Reno Tahoe International Airport (IATA: RNO, ICAO: KRNO), Reno, Nevada, then he opened the back stairs to the plane and parachuted out of the plane over south western Washington, which was part way through the flight to Reno.
A small portion of the ransom money was found along the banks of the Columbia River in 1980, which triggered renewed interest in D.B Cooper but it only deepened the mystery;the great majority of the ransom money remains unrecovered, the man identified himself as Dan Cooper but because of a news miscommunication, he became known popularly as D.B. Cooper.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) maintained an active investigation for 45 years after the hijacking occurred, despite compiling an extensive case file over that period of time, the FBI reached no definitive conclusions regarding Cooper's identity or his fate, the crime remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in commercial aviation history.
The FBI's best guess is that Cooper didn't survive the jump from the plane for several reasons; the rainy and dangerous weather conditions for skydiving on the night of the hijacking; Cooper's lack of proper equipment; the landing area being wilderness; the apparent lack of detailed knowledge Cooper had of his landing area; and the rest of the ransom money never turned up even after decades, suggesting that the money was never spent, the FBI officially suspended the active investigation into Cooper in July 2016.
Below is a video detailing what D.B Cooper did, Video credit goes to LEMMiNO.
