Rumor & Record
D.B.
Cooper
He bought his ticket with cash under the name Dan Cooper, took his seat and handed a flight attendant a note. A few hours later he stepped off the back of a Boeing 727 into a rainy night over Washington State with strapped to his body. Nobody has seen him since.1
Follow the flight
Stop 1 of 5The route Flight 305 flew that night, and where the money turned up nine years later. Tap a pin or step through in order.
Sketch only, not to scale. Places and times are from the FBI case summary.1
The man in the dark suit
On the afternoon of November 24, 1971, the day before Thanksgiving, a quiet man in his mid-40s boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 in Portland, Oregon. He wore a dark suit, a white shirt, a thin black tie and a raincoat.1
After takeoff he passed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner. He said he had a bomb in his briefcase. He wanted $200,000 and four parachutes waiting in Seattle.1
The ticket said Dan Cooper. A reporter on deadline later wrote "D.B. Cooper," and the mistake stuck.1
Out the back stairs
In Seattle the FBI handed over 10,000 unmarked $20 bills, about 19 pounds of cash, and four parachutes. Cooper released the passengers but kept the crew.1
He ordered the pilots south toward Mexico City, with a refueling stop in Reno. He told them to fly low and slow, with the landing gear down and the rear stairs open.1
When the plane landed in Reno a little after 11 p.m., the stairs were still down and the cabin was empty. He had left behind his clip-on tie, eight cigarette butts and two of the parachutes.1
Money on a riverbank
For nine years, nothing. Then, on February 10, 1980, an eight-year-old named Brian Ingram was digging on a Columbia River beach called Tena Bar and found three bundles of rotting $20 bills. They added up to about $5,800, and the serial numbers matched the ransom.1
The rest of the money has never been found. Neither has a parachute, a body or a name.1
In July 2016, after 45 years, the FBI ended its active investigation, saying no tip had ever produced a definite identification. It asked people to stop sending leads unless they found a parachute or the money.2
The timeline
- 1971
- Nov 24Flight 305 leaves Portland. Cooper hands over his note.
- EveningMoney and parachutes delivered in Seattle; passengers released.
- 7:40 p.m.Flight 305 takes off again, heading south.
- 8:13 p.m.The tail pitches up over southwest Washington. Cooper jumps.
- 11:02 p.m.The plane lands in Reno with the stairs down.
- Nov 28The FBI releases its first composite sketch.
- SINCE
- Feb 10, 1980About $5,800 of the ransom is found at Tena Bar.
- 2001Investigators take DNA samples from the clip-on tie.
- Jul 2016The FBI suspends its active investigation.
- 2020A study of tiny organisms in the bills suggests the money entered the river months after the jump.
Host"He planned for this, and he made it"
Look at how he ran it. Cash ticket, calm voice, exact demands, and an exit nobody had ever thought of: the back stairs of a 727. He asked for four parachutes so the FBI couldn't risk giving him a dud. That's not a desperate man. That's someone who knew aircraft.1
No body. No parachute. No suit, no briefcase, in 50 years of searching. The only money that ever turned up was miles from the jump zone, and the science says it got into the river months later.1 Somebody put it there. He landed, he walked out of the woods, and he lived a quiet life on $194,000.
Host"He jumped into a winter night and didn't come back"
He jumped at night, in the rain, over thick forest, in a business suit and a raincoat. The FBI's own estimate couldn't place his landing more precisely than a river watershed.1 Experienced jumpers would think twice about those conditions.
And if he lived, where's the money? The serial numbers were recorded, and in 50 years not a single bill has shown up anywhere except that one riverbank.1 A man who survived and spent $200,000 leaves a trail. A man who died in the trees doesn't.
Rex and June are characters written for this site and appear in every file. They are not real people. Their arguments come from the sources listed below.
The money went into the water later
The ransom found at Tena Bar didn't just wash up. In 2020, a study of the diatoms, tiny water organisms, trapped in the bills pointed to an odd conclusion.1
The money seems to have entered the river months after the November hijacking. So either it sat somewhere dry for most of a year before reaching the water, or someone put it there.1
What happened to D.B. Cooper?
On film
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The file
Common questions
Was D.B. Cooper ever caught?
No. The FBI never identified him, and it suspended its active investigation in July 2016.
Why is he called D.B. Cooper?
His ticket said Dan Cooper. A reporter on deadline wrote "D.B. Cooper," and the mistake spread.
Was any of the money found?
Yes. In 1980 a boy found about $5,800 of the ransom on the Columbia River's Tena Bar. The rest has never been found.
Did D.B. Cooper survive the jump?
Nobody knows. No body or parachute has been found. Many investigators doubt anyone could survive that jump, but there is no proof either way.
Other open files
Sources
- D. B. Cooper (Wikipedia, summarizing the FBI case file)
- FBI closes unsolved D.B. Cooper skyjacking case after 45 years (Global News, 2016)
Flat Earth
Ships disappear hull-first over the horizon. Some people look at that and see a curve. Others see a trick of perspective.
Open file 013Photo credits: FBI composite sketch (public domain); Washougal River, Drown Soda (CC BY-SA 4.0). Full list on the credits page.