D.B. Cooper Part 1

Astonishing Legends vor 5 Jahren

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On the afternoon of Thanksgiving eve, November 24, 1971, a
smartly dressed man approached the flight counter for Northwest
Orient Airlines at Portland International Airport and purchased a
one-way ticket to Seattle. The name he gave was "Dan
Cooper" as he paid cash to board Flight 305, a short 30-minute
trip that would turn into one of the longest criminal manhunts in
modern history. Once aboard, Cooper's requests to Flight
Attendant Florence Schaffner were simple: a bourbon and soda, and
a note to be delivered to the captain demanding $200,000 in cash
and four parachutes. To add emphasis to his order, Cooper
briefly showed Schaffner what appeared to be a bomb in the black
attaché case he carried with him. Calm and polite
throughout the ordeal, Cooper was now instructing the pilots to
take him to Mexico City during the refueling stop in
Seattle. However, it was never his intention to go that
far. Cooper's additional demands were now that the Boeing
727 fly not higher than 10,000 feet, with the landing gear still
deployed, the wing flaps lowered, the cabin depressurized, and at
the lowest airspeed possible without stalling the aircraft.
Around 8:13 p.m., the aft airstairs of the jet deployed, and
Cooper would leap into a cold rainstorm of a western Washington
night and popular culture forever. Due to a name mixup with
an early suspect by a local news reporter, the public would also
forever know "Dan Cooper" as "D. B. Cooper." The mystery of
Cooper's true identity and fate, along with the whereabouts of
most of the ransom money, would launch a 45-year investigation by
the FBI. His piracy would become a legend and the only
unsolved skyjacking case in the history of commercial
aviation.

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