Curious case of disappearance of Dan Cooper
On the afternoon of 24th November, 1971, an ordinary man calling himself Dan Cooper approached the ticket counter of the Portland, Oregon airport. The man used cash to buy a one-way ticket on Flight 305 to Seattle, Washington.Dan Cooper was a man in his mid-40s with a calm demeanour. In the airport, he was dressed in a business suit, complete with a black tie and white shirt. While waiting for his flight to depart, he ordered a bourbon and soda.
Shortly after 3:00 p.m. inside the plane, he silently handed a note to the flight attendant, revealing that he had a bomb in his briefcase and requested her company. The flight attendant, needless to say, was stunned and complied. Cooper opened a basic briefcase, briefly showing her wires and red sticks inside, and instructed her to deliver his demands to the pilot.
The attendant soon delivered a note to the plane's captain, requesting four parachutes and $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills.
Upon landing in Seattle, Cooper, the hijacker, traded thirty-six passengers for the money and parachutes, retaining a few crew members. The aircraft then set off again, bound for Mexico City.
In a daring move between Seattle and Reno, around 8:00 p.m. that night, Dan Cooper leaped from the plane with the money and a parachute.
The crew landed safely later, but Cooper vanished into the darkness, his fate remains unknown even today.
The FBI was alerted mid-flight and initiated a comprehensive investigation named NORJAK, for Northwest Hijacking. This investigation involved interviewing numerous people, following leads throughout the USA, and examining the hijacked aircraft for clues.
After five years of intensive investigation, over 800 suspects were considered, narrowing down to just two dozen by the FBI.
The case remains one of the most infamous unsolved mysteries in FBI history. Despite extensive investigations and countless theories, Cooper's true identity and fate have never been definitively determined.
