More than 50 years after the infamous hijacking of Northwest Orient Flight 305, new light is being shed on the D.B. Cooper case. A former FBI expert has stepped forward with shocking, never-before-seen evidence that could finally unlock the truth behind one of America’s greatest unsolved mysteries.
In this in-depth investigation, we analyze the newly revealed details, revisit critical clues long overlooked, and explore how this new testimony could change the course of the case forever. Was D.B. Cooper ever close to being caught? Did the FBI know more than they admitted?
Join us as we uncover the latest chapter in the legendary mystery of the man who vanished without a trace—along with $200,000 in ransom money.
00:00On the afternoon of November 24, 1971, the day before Thanksgiving, a man in a black suit, white shirt, and black tie walked into Portland in a national airport. He looked like any other businessman come neat, and completely unremarkable, but the name he used to buy his ticket would soon become one of the most infamous aliases in American history. He called himself Dan Cooper.
00:23The world would later misreport it as D.B. Cooper, and that name would go down in history as the mystery manned behind the only unsolved case of air piracy in the United States. Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a short flight from Portland to Seattle. He carried a briefcase and sat quietly in seat 18C. Shortly after takeoff, he handed a note to a flight attendant.
00:49At first, she didn't pay attention. She assumed it was just another man slipping her his phone number. But then Cooper leaned toward her and whispered something chilling.
00:59Miss, you'd better look at that note. I have a bomb. Inside his briefcase were wires and red sticks that appeared to be dynamite. Cooper showed them briefly, just enough to make his point.
01:10Calmly and politely, he made his demands, $200,000 in unmarked cash, four parachutes, and a fuel truck, ready to refuel the aircraft upon arrival in Seattle.
01:24He also wanted no police interference. The airline, fearing for the lives of everyone on board, agreed to the demands.
01:31Cooper allowed the flight to land normally, and once it did, he exchanged the passengers for the money and parachutes, but he held on to several crew members and instructed the pilot to take off again, this time heading south toward Mexico City.
01:45What happened next would cement the legend of D.B. Cooper gave very specific instructions. The plane had to fly under 10,000 feet, at a speed no faster than 200 knots, and with the landing gear down.
01:59These were strange requests ones that indicated he knew something about aviation.
02:04Somewhere, over the dense, rainy forests of southwestern Washington, around 8.13 p.m., the rear staircase of the Boeing 727 opened in midair.
02:15Cooper jumped, parachutes strapped to his back, and the bag of rants and money in his arms.
02:21It was a stormy, freezing night. Visibility was poor. The terrain below was rugged and heavily forested.
02:27No one saw him leap. No body was ever found. D.B. Cooper had vanished into the darkness.
02:33The FBI launched one of the most extensive manhunts in American history.
02:38They scoured a massive area near the town of Ariel Washington, where they believed Cooper might have landed.
02:44Agents, soldiers, helicopters, and dogs searched the forest. Rivers were dredged. Aerial sweeps were conducted.
02:52Yet, they found nothing. Not a parachute. Not a footprint. Not a trace.
03:00As the years passed, the FBI chased down over 800 suspects. Some of them were war veterans.
03:06Others were prison escapees, former airline workers, and even pilots.
03:11One of the most well-known suspects was Richard McCoy, a man who hijacked a plane in a nearly identical fashion just months later.
03:19But he was eventually ruled out. His handwriting didn't match. The physical appearance was off.
03:25There was no real evidence tying him to the Cooper case.
03:28Another popular suspect was Kenneth Crisley, a former paratrooper and flight attendant who lived quietly and frugally.
03:34When he died, his family found strange items like large sums of money and photos of him with a similar appearance to Cooper.
03:42Yet again, the evidence was purely circumstantial.
03:45In 1980, a young boy vacationing with his family along the Columbia River stumbled upon something incredible.
03:52A decaying bundle of $1.20 bills buried in the sand.
03:56When the FBI examined the bills, they confirmed that the serial numbers matched the ransom money given to Cooper nearly a decade earlier.
04:05In total, the boy had discovered $5,800 in deteriorating bills, but the mystery only deepened.
04:13Why was only a portion of the money found?
04:15Why in that location did Cooper bury it?
04:18Did it wash downstream?
04:20Was it planted there?
04:22Despite this breakthrough, no other physical evidence ever turned up.
04:26No paratrooper, no gear, no more money.
04:29The FBI began to believe that Cooper had not survived the jump.
04:33After all, he had no survival gear, jumped into the night in poor weather, and landed in thick wilderness.
04:39The odds were against him.
04:40But there was also a compelling counter-argument.
04:43Cooper had planned everything with meticulous detail.
04:46He had chosen a plane with a rear staircase that could be lowered mid-flight.
04:50He knew the altitude, the speed, and how to avoid detection.
04:54He had asked for parachutes likely to trick the authorities into thinking he might take a hostage with him,
05:00forcing them to give him real parachutes rather than sabotaged ones.
05:04This wasn't a man acting on impulse.
05:06He was calculating, smart, maybe even trained.
05:10For decades, amateur investigators, journalists, and internet sleuths continued the chase.
05:17Documentaries were made, books were published, theories, some believed Cooper escaped to Canada.
05:23Others suggested he lived in hiding under a new name, or died shortly after the jump but was never found.
05:28Conspiracies even suggested the FBI knew his identity but covered it up for reasons unknown.
05:33Then, in 2016, after 45 years of investigation, the FBI officially closed the case.
05:41They cited a lack of new evidence and the overwhelming number of dead ends.
05:45The D.B. Cooper file was archived, ending the official pursuit of the most famous skyjacker in U.S. history.
05:51But for many, the mystery remains alive.
05:53Somewhere out, there may be in an unmarked grave, maybe sitting quietly in a small town.
05:59Under a false identity could be, the man who pulled off the most daring and the mysterious hijacking ever recorded.
06:06A man who, with a calm voice and a clever plan, walked onto a plane and then vanished into legend.
06:13Was D.B. Cooper, a criminal mastermind, a desperate man with nothing to lose, or a ghost of American folklore?
06:20We may never know.
06:21But what we do know is this.
06:23In the cold night sky over Washington State, he disappeared, leaving behind only questions, theories, and a mystery that still haunts the FBI to this day.
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