On November 24, 1971, along with his $200,000 cash demand, D.B. Cooper parachuted down a Mexico-City bound plane, completing one of the most daring and mysterious criminal ventures ever.

Not just are the whereabouts of D.B. Cooper a mystery, but his identity remains unknown. A sketch drawing of his face remains to date, the only clue to who he was or what he looked like. 

The date might mean little or nothing to many people, but to the passengers and crew of the Boeing 727 flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, it will be a forever memorable day. Even the FBI agents who worked tirelessly to nail Mr. Cooper won’t forget the events in a hurry. 

In the middle of the afternoon, D.B. Cooper walked up to the counter of Northwest Orient Airlines. Supposedly in his mid-40s and clad in formal wear, the man bought a one-way ticket for flight number 305. 

It is interesting to imagine Mr. Cooper aboard the flight, with his unsophisticated attache case by his side. Eyewitnesses don’t believe that he spoke to other passengers on the flight. He was just a man on a mission. 

For many years, the abandoned black JCPenney tie remained the center of the D.B. Cooper investigations. Analysts examined the tie to discover stains that could provide more information about Mr. Cooper. 

Lots of Titanium deposits on his tie showed that he could have worked at a company like Boeing. At the time, Boeing was working on a transport plane project that required Titanium and other similar elements. 

What drinks would be perfect for a man set to execute an airplane hijack? According to the D.B. Cooper story, it’s bourbon and soda. Mr. Cooper was seen drinking the beverages while he waited for takeoff. 

That 24th of November would have seemed like a routine day for Tina Mucklow, the flight attendant. As she walked down the aisle, seeing that the passengers were doing great, nothing could have prepared her for what came next. 

Somehow, fate chose Tina Mucklow, the newest staff on the 6-member crew, for an unplanned encounter with Mr. Cooper. According to her testimony, as the plane was set to liftoff, her partner, Florence Shaffner, surprisingly took her seat beside a passenger in a suit and horn-rimmed sunglasses. 

If Florence Shaffner wondered if it was all a big joke, her doubts soon cleared away. Shortly after she sat by the mystery man, she knew that he was serious. Slowly, D.B. slightly opened a briefcase by his side to reveal an explosive device. 

D.B. Cooper soon began to make demands. He ordered the attendant to write a note to the captain with a list of demands, including $200,000 in cash. It was a lot of money at the time, equivalent to around a million dollars presently.

The atmosphere was tense. Tina was still reeling from the shock. She, however, managed, as well as Miss Florence, to maintain her composure. Mr. Cooper also demanded four parachutes – two front and two back parachutes.

The last item on the list of Mr. Cooper’s demands was an unusual one — a fuel truck parked and waiting at the Seattle airport once the plane landed. Miss Tina sat beside Mr. Cooper and prayed for other passengers who went on with their business with all innocence. 

The flight to Seattle was only to last 30 minutes. For this reason, the plane had to circle in the air for an additional four hours on reaching its destination. At the same time, government officials were busy getting Mr. Cooper’s demands ready. 

The other two flight attendants ran for their lives after the plane hit the ground. With Tina Mucklow alone with Mr. Cooper and the pilots, she had to make several trips on and off the plane to get his money and parachutes.

The next plan on Mr. Cooper’s agenda was to get the plane refueled a second time (it was first refueled in Seattle). The plane headed for Reno, Nevada, to replenish its fuel tanks before changing its path.

Until a few minutes after changing course, Miss Tina and all the other crew members believed Mr. Cooper was heading for Mexico City. Things began to take a different turn when D.B. Cooper demanded that she show him how to open the door that led to the plane’s rear stairway. 

With the plane flying at a low altitude of 10,000 feet as he demanded, Mr. Cooper made for the rear exit door. He lowered the stairs and prepared to do the unexpected. 

Over the years, the level of risk involved in Mr. Cooper’s jump-off has made people wonder, “What was he thinking?” Diving over such dangerous terrain could only take unbelievable amounts of guts. 

Given the conditions of his jump, it is easier to believe that Cooper didn’t make it alive. A suit and loafers aren’t good clothes for jumping off planes in the middle of the night. Let alone with $200,000 strapped to one’s body. If he did survive, he probably would have died of age-related causes or be 95 years old. 

Cooper’s escape plan raised further questions. One such was, “Why flight #305?” It became apparent that Cooper knew about the manufacturing defect in the Boeing 727, which was the only Boeing plane with a rear exit staircase. 

The plane landed in Reno, Nevada, by 11 pm the same night. The crew members were relieved to reunite with the airport and be safe from the dangerous hijacker. Law enforcement agents cleared the hostages and searched the plane to find Cooper. 

Another unanswered question surrounding the Cooper case is his demand for four parachutes. Why four? After asking for an initial two parachutes, Cooper requested two additional ones. 

After what seemed like an embarrassingly fruitless search, the FBI found a ray of hope in an unexpected discovery. Nine years after, a young boy who was out camping with his family close to Columbia River discovered wads of Cooper’s $20 bills totaling $5,800 in a rotting package. 

In 2020, using an electron microscope, scientist Tom Kaye found a new theory surrounding the recovered cash. It was found that a portion of the criminal’s $200,000 extortion money – placed on the riverbank close to his landing zone – had been immersed in water months after he landed. 

You can imagine that there would be lots of suspects in such a high-profile case. Relying on sketches based on eyewitness descriptions plus other pieces of information, the FBI had thousands of suspects to check out. 

The FBI once viewed Richard Floyd McCoy, a well-known hijacker with tactics akin to Cooper’s, as a leading suspect. Close to five months after Cooper’s flight was hijacked, McCoy took over a passenger plane in April 1972. He demanded a cash ransom and used a parachute to jump out of the plane.

The FBI initially believed Robert Rackstraw to be the infamous skyjacker: D.B. Cooper. The Ohio native, who dropped out of high school, was born in 1943. He served as a decorated U.S. Army paratrooper in the Vietnam War in the late 1960s before being expelled from the service for lying and other misconduct. 

Duane L. Weber wasn’t discovered by the authorities until after 1995. On his deathbed that year, he revealed who he was to his wife, Jo Weber. 

Forty-five years after the mystery of the skyjacking, the FBI finally put an end to the D.B. Cooper case in June 2016. The D.B. Cooper case led to some of the “longest and most thorough investigations,” according to the agency.