>
Posted on 05/05/2006 10:22:55 PM PDT by Ptarmigan
45 year old D.B. Cooper enters Portland International Airport. Cooper uses the name Dan Cooper to buy a one-way ticket to Sea-Tac International Airport on November 24, 1971, a Wednesday before Thanksgiving. He boards Northwest Flight 305, a Boeing 727-100. He boards the airplane and attracts no attention. He is wearing suit with a pearl tie and wearing a homburg hat. The airplane starts to taxi and take off from the runway. Flight attendant Flo Schaffner walks by and he hands her a note. Men traveling alone handed nots to flight attendants as a way to pass hotel and phone numbers. When she walked a second time, Cooper says to Schaffner, "You'd better read that. I have a bomb." From there, the hijacking starts. Schaffer then goes to the cockpit and notifies Captain William Scott. They are required to cooperate. He orders Schaffner to sit next to her. Cooper shows her briefcase. He also tells the pilot not to land, until the money and parachute are there for him to get. This is exchange for all the passengers on board, which amounts to $200,000. As the hijacking happens, very few passengers knew what was going on. The airplane lands at Sea-Tac and demands it goes to Mexico City and flies slowly and at lower altitude. As the airplane is flying, two F-106 are dispatched to follow it, but it flies at Mach 2. The weather conditions were not great. He goes through the rear door of the Boeing 727 and parachutes out at around 8:05 PM. With him is the $200,000 money. From there, he is never seen again. Hijackings were very common in the 1960s and 70s. In fact two-thirds of them were recorded during that time period. They were mostly committed by political factions to skyjackings in which the hijacker wanted money. Hijackings back then did not result in airplane intentionally being crashed into a building, which happened on September 11, 2001, which claimed 3,000 lives. Then in 1980, a 8 year old boy found money which had matching serial numbers that Cooper had. Presumably, he either died in the Pacific Northwest forest or somehow survived and someone waited to pick him up. Years later, some people claimed to be D.B. Cooper, but none were every confirmed. A close one was in 2000 with Duane Cooper, but it came inconclusive. Nobody knows what really happened to him. D.B. Cooper remains the only unsolved hijacking.
Crime Library-DB Cooper
US News and World Report-DB Cooper
Wikipedia-DB Cooper
Uh...there is NO WAY the Boeing 727 can break Mach 1, let alone Mach 2.
A Boeing 727 only flies at like 500 mph. If if flew at Mach 1 or 2, the plane would be torn to pieces.
Then make sure you check your post...
I meant to say the F-106 flying at Mach 2, not the 727. The F-106 was sent to pursue, but it went way too fast.
His real name is unknown, his age is unknown.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/scams/DB_Cooper/index.html
"In either case, D.B. Cooper's nom de crime—no one knows his real name—may be the most recognized alias among western felons since Jack the Ripper."
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/scams/DB_Cooper/7.html
"The Air Force scrambled up two F-106 fighter jets from McChord. Those pilots were instructed to follow at a safe distance and watch for a jumper. But the fighters are built to fly at speeds of up to 1,500 mph. They were useless in slow-motion, low altitude surveillance. The authorities tried to recover by sending up a slower-flying Air National Guard Lockheed T-33, but Cooper probably had already jumped by the time it arrived."
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/scams/DB_Cooper/8.html
"The discovery of the cash gave impetus to new searches in that area until nature intervened. On May 18, 14 weeks after the bundles were found, the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens carpeted the region with a thick coating of ash and touched off vast fires. Many fear the eruption may have permanently obscured additional Cooper clues that may have been waiting in the Woodland vicinity."
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/scams/DB_Cooper/10.html
"In 1995, for example, Duane Weber, a Florida antiques dealer who was dying of kidney disease, told his wife, 'I'm Dan Cooper.' After Weber died, his widow found a hidden wallet that indicated the man had had a previous life as one John C. Collins. His resume of wrongdoing included a bad conduct discharge from the Navy and six prison sentences, one of them served 20 miles from Sea-Tac Airport. The widow claimed Weber took her on an unexplained 'sentimental journey' in 1979 to a remote place in the woods of Clark County, Washington. She said the husband looked like the Cooper sketch, knew Seattle well, smoked cigarettes, drank bourbon, and sometimes talked in his sleep about aft stairs and fingerprints."
>
Fiction.
Thanks, I thought that was what you meant, but I am sure others would have been confused as well.
Not necessarily fiction...I think it's more a case of a poorly constructed sentence.
Good Point!
Years later a hunter found some part of the plane in the vast northwest's woods. My take is he parachuted into the woods and moved to Florida.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.