What DB Cooper Ever Found?

If you enjoy stranger-than-fiction, real-life stories, or enjoy Loki on Disney+, which touched on the DB Cooper story, you do not want to miss DB Cooper: Where Are You?! onNetflix.

The four-part series explores the tale of a man who identified himself as Dan Cooper on November 21, 1971, at the Portland, Oregon airport.

That evening, Cooper, known in the media as DB Cooper, would go on to carry out the biggest unsolved skyjacking in US history. It is believed he parachuted out the back of the aircraft, using a military-grade parachute.

So, has DB Cooper ever been found? Newsweek has everything you need to know.

What DB Cooper Ever Found?

Officially no. DB Cooper has ever been found.

However, that has not stopped armchair detectives, retired law enforcement personnel, and admirers of Cooper from trying to find out his true identity to this day, five decades after he hijacked flight Northwest Orient flight 305 as it flew from Portland to Seattle.

On November 21, 1971, Cooper purchased a one-way ticket to Seattle. When the Boeing 727 flight was midair, Cooper handed air hostess Florence Schaffner a note, alleging he had a bomb inside his briefcase.

After taking a look at what appeared to be a makeshift bomb — it is unknown if it was real or fake — Schaffner was instructed to take a note to the flight’s captain, William A. Scott.

The neatly typed note demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills.

Thankfully, Scott was able to safely land the plane at the Seattle-Tacoma airport where the passengers were disembarked. However, Cooper and four members of the flight’s crew, as well as the pilot stayed on board.

Cooper’s parachutes and money were delivered to the plane. Cooper ordered the plane to fly towards Mexico City and in mid-flight, Cooper demanded all of the staff move to the cockpit of the plane.

Police sketches of DB Cooper
Netflix

After speaking to them over the plane’s internal telephone, Cooper ceased communicating with the flight crew and when the plane landed, he was nowhere to be seen. It is believed he jumped out the back of the plane using a parachute with the cash in hand.

For starters, it was always going to be difficult to locate and identify Cooper. Airport security in the 1970s was not at the level it is today and it was unknown exactly when Cooper left the plane, making it hard to pinpoint his landing spot.

Additionally, the five aircraft following the hijacked jet did not see Cooper jump from the plane. It was also dark at the time, making seeing him nearly impossible.

Unfortunately, the cigarette butts left on board by Cooper were lost and therefore have never been able to be processed via DNA technology.

However, Cooper did leave a black JC Penny tie behind providing the FBI with a DNA sample. Nevertheless, there has never been a successful match.

As seen in Netflix’s DB Cooper: Where Are You?! There have been many suspects and potential leads over the years, from Cooper’s cash being uncovered in February 1980 in the beach town of Tina, near Vancouver, Washington, and men claiming to have met the real Cooper.

The FBI set up an investigation, known as NORJACK, and by 1976 had interviewed more than 800 suspects.

These badly decomposed $20 dollar bills were shown to reporters after a check of their serial numbers showed that they were identical to the bills given to hijacker DB Cooper on November 24, 1971. The money was found by Brian Ingram, 8, who was searching for firewood while on a family outing with his parents. The money was found on the north shore of the Columbia River, partially buried in the sand.
Getty

For a while, the FBI homed in on one suspect, Richard Floyd McCoy, who had been arrested for a similar hijacking five months after Cooper’s but he was later dismissed as the culprit as he did not match the physical descriptions given by eyewitnesses.

Another main suspect was Robert Rackstraw, a former US Army paratrooper. Many suspected he could have used his top-tier military training to successfully hijack and parachute out of the plane,

Rackstraw was also an interesting character, always in and out of trouble with the law. He was even charged with the murder of his stepfather before being acquitted by a jury.

Rackstraw also attempted to fake his own death in 1978 by crashing a rented airplane into Monterey Bay, California. However, he was found by investigators a few months later and charged with stealing an aircraft and passing bad checks. He spent two years in prison for his crimes.

Other suspects over the years included Kenneth Peter Christiansen, Jack Coffelt, Lynn Doyle Cooper, Barbara Dayton, William Gossett, Robert Lepsy, John List, Ted Mayfield, Sheridan Peterson, Robert Rackstraw, Walter R. Reca, William J. Smith and Duane Weber , but they were all eventually ruled out.

There, of course, is the possibility that Cooper simply did not survive the jump. He did use a parachute that could not be steered, and he was not dressed appropriately for a sky-dive. Meaning it may be even harder to find Cooper.

Despite extensive attempts to find Cooper, the FBI’s case was suspended in 2016 and his whereabouts remain unknown.

At the time of the hijacking, Cooper was believed to be between 30 to 50 years of age. If he is alive today, Cooper would be in his late 80s or 90s.

DB CooperWhere Are You?! is streaming on Netflix now.