D.B. Cooper

The diversion

A trapped case

With 16:35, on November 24th, 1971, in the United States (day before Thanksgiving), a man travelling under the name of daN Cooper diverts flight 305, a Boeing 727-051 of the company Northwest Orient Airlines taking off of the International airport of Portland cement, Oregon, while threatening to explode a bends on board (it carries with him a case containing of the electric cables and the “red sticks”).

When Cooper took seat aboard plane, it included/understood only 36 passengers and 6 team members. It carried an impermeable black, moccasins, a dark costume of businesses, a white blouse perfectly passed by again, a fine black tie, and a pearly tie-pin. It also carried enveloping sunglasses.

“You are diverted”

The plane was hardly in the airs, which it called its Airline hostess, Florence Schaffner, sitted not far, to order a drink. After having paid it, it tightened an envelope to him. She thought that it gave him its phone number, therefore she slipped it, not-open, in her pocket. Cooper leant nearer, “Miss, you would make better look at this message. I have a bomb”. In the envelope a note was which said, “I have a bomb in my case. I will make use of it if necessary. I want that you remain at my sides. You are diverted”.

When the airline hostess informed the cockpit of the intentions of Cooper, the pilot, William Scott, contacted the Contrôle of the air traffic in Seattle-Tacoma, and one ordered to him to cooperate with the hijacker. Scott indicated to Schaffner to turn over to sit down nearly daN Cooper, which entrebâilla its case one moment, to sufficiently a long time make it possible Schaffner to see red cylinders and electric cables. It ordered to him to tell the pilot not to land before the money and the parachutes are not ready in Seattle-Tacoma. It turned over to the cockpit to transmit the instructions of Cooper.

Relaxation of the passengers following the execution of its requests

When the plane lands with its original destination envisaged, the International airport of Seattle-Tacoma close to Seattle, Washington, with 17:45, it slackened all the passengers in exchange of 200 000 $ (in cuts of 20 $) and four parachutes, supposed to be for the four remaining people aboard the plane (the pilot, the copilot, an airline hostess and itself). It is thought that it was a manner for D.B. of being sure that none the parachutes which were given to him were trapped.
À 19:45, it intima with the crew to take again the airs, ordering to them to fly towards Mexico City at a relatively low speed and an altitude, approximately 10.000 feet 048 m (the normal altitude of cruising is of approximately 25 000 feet 620 m with 37 000 feet m with the engaged landing gears and 15 degrees of shutters. At one time of the flight, it jumped of the back staircase of the plane with the money and the parachutes. FBI supposes that its dive took place towards 20:11 with the top of the south-west of the State of Washington, because it is at this time that the staircase postpones ouvrit. Because of the bad visibility, its dive was not noticed by the fighter plans F-106 of the United States Air Force which pursued the airliner. One supposes that it landed in the south-east of the town of Ariel at the edge of Lake Merwin, 48 km in the north of Portland.

Failure of research after 18 days of tracking

In 18 days spite of research of the zone of landing estimated, no trace of the man or his parachute found forever, and it is not even known if he survived his escape. The FBI questioned then slackened a man of the name of D.B. Cooper, but which regarded forever as a significant suspect. However, because of a bad communication with the media, initial the " D.B." firmly remained associated to the hijacker and thus it is known nowadays.

After three diversions similar (but less successful) in 1972, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered that all Boeing 727 are provided with a mechanism known under the name of Cooper Vane , a mechanical aerodynamic hold which prevents the back staircase from being lowered during the vol.

February 13rd, 1980, 5.800 $ (in cuts of 20 $) of the ransom were found by a family which spade-screwed to 8 km in the North-West of Vancouver (Washington) on banks of the Columbia river. It was known that the cuts came from the ransom given to Cooper, because the serial numbers of the tickets corresponded to those recorded by the authorities, with an aim of tracking it and of apprehending it in the possibility where he would have sought to spend them or to deposit them.

Suspects

Richard McCoy, Jr.

One of the diversions of 1972 was carried out by Richard McCoy, Jr. April 7th, 1972, four months after the diversion of D.B. Cooper, McCoy embarked on the flight United Flight 855 during a stopover with Denver. It was a Boeing 727 with a back staircase, of the same type as that used in the Cooper business, than McCoy used to escape after having given to the crew the same type of instructions as daN Cooper.

Following a pipe, the police force started to inquire into the case McCoy. Married, having two young children, he was professor of Mormon Catéchisme while studying the right to the university Brigham Young. He was also veteran of the Guerre of Vietnam, old green beret pilot of Hélicoptère, and a enthusiastic parachutist.

After a positive correspondence of a Digital fingerprint and a manuscript writing, McCoy was stopped two days after the diversion. Ironically, McCoy belonged to the teams of the National guard implied in research in the helicopter of the hijacker. In its residence, the agents of the FBI found a behavior of parachutist and a bag of fabric filled of 499 970 $ in liquid. McCoy protested its innocence, but was condemned for one of the diversions of 1972 and accepted a 45 years of prison sorrow.

Once imprisoned, using its access to the dentist's surgery of the prison, McCoy manufactured a false gun using dental paste. He escaped with several others condemned in August 1974 after having stolen a truck dustbin and by projecting it against the main entrance of the prison. That took three months with the FBI to locate McCoy, in Virginia. McCoy drew on the agents from the FBI and the agent Nicholas O' Hara killed it while retorting with a shotgun.

D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy , Co-writing by an old agent of the FBI of the name of Russell Calame, was published in 1991. The book supports the thesis whereby Cooper and McCoy were actually the same person, by mentioning the similar methods of diversion and of a tie forgotten by Cooper, similar to those carried by the students of the university Brigham Young. The author supports that forever allowed McCoy “nor denied to be Cooper”. And when it was directly asked McCoy if it were Cooper, it answered “I do not want to speak about it with you”. The agent which killed McCoy is quoted like having said: “When that I killed Richard McCoy, I killed D.B. Cooper at the same time”. The widow of Richard McCoy, Karen Burns McCoy, gained a lawsuit against the joint authors of the book and her editor.

Duane Weber

In July 2000, U.S. News & World Report left an article in connection with a widow the town of Pace to Florida, called OJ Weber, proclaiming that her late husband, Duane Weber, acknowledged to him “I am daN Cooper” right before his death in 1995. It became suspicieuse and started to carry out research on the past of her husband. Duane Weber served in the American armed during the Second world war and later was useful in a prison close to the airport to Portland cement. Mrs. Weber remembered that her husband had once a nightmare where he spoke during his sleep in connection with jump starting from a plane and says something in connection with “to have left my prints on the back staircase”. She once found an old ticket of plane in her papers in the name of the Northwest Airlines company which indicated SEA-TAC (airport of Seattle-Tacoma). OJ remembered that little before its death, Duane revealed to him that an old wound with the knee had arrived to him in “jumping of a plane”.

Mrs. Weber remembered as holidays on a 1979 as the couple took towards Seattle, “sentimental journey” according to what Duane says to him, with a walk towards the Columbia river. She remembered how, oddly, Duane went all alone towards bank of the river, only four months before part of cash of Cooper is found in the same sector. One of the most convincing incriminating evidences, than Mrs. Weber produced, was the fact that it had found a book on the Cooper business with the local library on which inside it found annotations corresponding to the manuscript writing of her husband. Mrs. Weber started to correspond with the agent of the FBI Ralph Himmelsbach, the investigator as a chief on the Cooper business. Himmelsbach evoked that Weber was one of the best suspects into which he inquired., was carried out by Roger Spottiswoode, with Treat Williams in the role of Cooper and Robert Duval in the role of an police officer tracking it.

the Televised series Infos FM comprised a arc in which the character Jimmy James is stopped because one suspects it of being D.B. Cooper. During the lawsuit, one discovers that Cooper is in fact Adam West. Earlier in the series, one had revealed that James was deep Gorge.
In the film Without has Paddle , three friends leave to research the treasure D.B. Cooper. They end up finding the remainders of Cooper (death after having broken its leg at the time of the impact) with its money.
In the televised series Prison Station-wagon of the Fox, the character Charles Westmoreland is suspecté by his/her comrades held to be D.B. Cooper. After having denied it on several occasions during the first season, Westmoreland admits finally that it is well Cooper and that the ransom with which it fled is in fact of 5 million dollars. However, the true D.B. Cooper is supposed to be fled with only 4% of this sum (Westmoreland explains why the FBI lied about the real amount of the ransom with which Cooper fled in order to avoid a public humiliation). Moreover, Westmoreland proves to the main character that it is well Cooper by showing him a ticket of 100 $ with a serial number corresponding to those used for the payment of the ransom; however, actually the ransom was paid with tickets of 20 $. Another error is that the ticket of 100 $ is gone back to 1972, one year after the diversion really took place.
In the Televised series Twin Peaks of David Lynch, a special agent of FBI, Flagstone Cooper, division the same initial ones as the hijacker, the complete name being Flagstone Bartholomew Cooper.
At the end of the years 1980, American televised series, Unsolved Mysteries , comprised an episode putting forth the assumption that the identikit picture worked out by the FBI was bad and that they again made it draw. They concluded from it that the hijacker was McCoy.
a chain of Fox diffused the film The Search for D.B. Cooper and received a fine of 27 500 $ of FCC for language obscene.
In 1995, the third episode of the fourth season of the American televised series the Rebel , entitled spoils fallen from the sky ( The Balad off D.B. Cooper in the original version) puts in scene the two main characters, bargain hunters of their state, to leave to research D.B. Cooper to capture it and touch the corresponding reward.

Places

the community of Ariel (County of Cowlitz) commemorates the incident by an annual celebration called D.B. Cooper Days .
a bar called " DB Cooper' s" is in the 39e street with Kansas City, in the Missouri.

Books

the diversion of Cooper is briefly mentioned in the news Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption of Stephen King, when the character Andy Dufresne, joking with half, thinks that D.B. Cooper is a former prisoner of the prison of Shawshank which is escaped a few years before.
Elwood Reid published a novel at Albin Michel in 2004 heading the second life of D.B. Cooper . In this version, D.B. Cooper is a veteran of the Vietnam of the name of Phil Fitch.

Music

the native singer-type-setter of Oregon Todd Snider made a song on this famous mystery having for title " D.B. Cooper".
the singer-type-setter Chuck Brodsky included a song having for title " The Balad off D.B. Cooper" in its album of 2006, Tulips for Buffet .
the singer of rap Kid Rock referred there in its words “And for D.B. Cooper and the money He took” in its song of 1998 " Bawitdaba."
the singer underground of hip-hop MF DOOM compares itself with D.B. Cooper in its song “Hoe Cakes”, of the album MM.Food LP (2005): “Average MCs is like has TV blooper. MF DOOM, he' S like D.B. Cooper - out with the moolah” .
the homonymous album solo of Roger McGuinn (singer of The Byrds) of 1973 contains off the song “Bag Full Money” referring to the diversion of Cooper: “In the race off Korea I learned how to jump, In the card range off life I was holding has trump, Floating I' m floating one down through the sky, Never had No ambition to learn how to fly, Be glad when it' S over Be happy to Land, With this bag full off money I' ve got in my hands” , which can result about in “Into flight for Korea, I learned how to jump, In the play of the life, I had an asset, I float, I float through the sky, But never had the ambition to learn with to fly, Will be content when that is finished, Heureux to land, With this bag full of money which I have in the hands”.
D.B. Cooper, a group new wave , carried out three albums with the beginning of the year 1980.

See too

Diversion of plane

Ransom -->

References

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