History

So, What were you doing on Thanksgiving eve (November 24) 1971? Preparing for family dinner the next day with turkey or ham? Purchasing potatoes, yams, and corn? Baking pies? Well, if you were D.B. Cooper, you were in seat 18C on Northwest Airlines flight 305 from Portland, Oregon to Sea-Tac (Seattle-Tacoma) Airport preparing to extort $200,000 in twenty dollar bills and four parachutes by handing the flight attendant a letter saying you were armed with a bomb and you will blow up the plane if your needs aren’t met. He also ordered the rear door to be unlocked and the plane to fly low and at a slow speed.

D.B. Cooper, also known as Dan Cooper, was wearing a dark suit and dark sunglasses and was later called a “gentleman” by the flight attendant after the hijacking. At Sea-Tac Airport, he was granted his request and released all thirty six passengers and several flight crew. He told the pilot and the rest of the flight crew to fly to Mexico. They landed in Reno, Nevada with Cooper gone from the plane. He dropped from the passenger stairs into the Cascade Mountains of Washington state.

As the plane reached ten thousand feet with gusting winds and freezing rain driving into the boeing 727, Cooper, who was mistakenly called “D.B. Cooper” by reporters, leaped out of the plane and cemented his name in history.

DB Cooper Facts

*More than eight hundred suspects have been questioned or evaluated

* 20,000 pieces of information have been obtained

* Even though the act was a crime, Cooper was considered a gentleman. He drank bourbon and smoked cigarettes, he was polite, and released every passenger, even before receiving the money.

A dominant suspect

Duane Weber.

No other suspect has had a more unique story than Duane Weber.

*During a sleep-talking episode, Duane says he left fingerprints on the aft stairs. The aft stairs is where Cooper jumped from the plane. Duane’s wife, Jo, said he woke up soaked in sweat.

*Weber’s wife, Jo, was going over tax records in 1994 and found an old plane ticket with the words SEA-TAC and Northwest Airlines.

*There is a strong resemblance between Duane L. Weber and the FBI sketch.

Whether or not D.B. Cooper died that Thanksgiving eve or if he survived the jump and lived for many years after, his legacy has lasted over forty years. It seems as if his crime has been celebrated and he definitely has his fans, so what do you think about the story of D.B. Cooper? Leave your comments here!