Cool, Or What ?

[Khandro]

'In the early 1970s Steve McQueen was the biggest action star in America. But on November 24, 1971, he was eclipsed by a man called Dan Cooper. At least, that’s the name he was going by. No one knew his real identity.

On that rainy Wednesday in Portland, Oregon, Cooper walked into the city’s airport and bought a one-way ticket to Seattle, Washington. He didn’t draw attention to himself. With his short hair, clean shave, black suit and briefcase, he looked like an average businessman. After take-off he gave a stewardess a note that read: “Miss – I have a bomb here”. He unlocked his briefcase; there were wires and dynamite inside. Cooper was hijacking the flight. His demands were $200,000 in banknotes and several parachutes.

The plane landed in Seattle as planned. Waiting on the tarmac were FBI agents with the ransom and the parachutes. In exchange Cooper let the passengers dis­embark. The crew stayed on board and the plane soon departed, destined for Mexico. But Cooper had no intention of going there. He taped the money around his waist and put one of the parachutes on. Then he jumped out of the plane. The FBI never found him.'

 

From  the review of a book entitled, 'The Hijacking of Americam Flight 119', by John Wigger 

[retrocop]

I'm amazed that having taken off ,courtesy of the FBI complete with ransom and parachutes, the aircraft wasn't blown out the sky by Maverick and Goose over the desert.

[davebro3]

I would have made sure all the parachutes were sabotaged.

[Ken4155]

I'd have given him fake notes - the FBI (or whoever) must have loads in store as evidence.

[Arksided]

I remember reading about D.B. Cooper many years ago, way before I had the internet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

[Khandro]

It was the first of it's kind and it apparently spawned several copy-cat attempts, but no one got away with it like he did. 

[237SJ]

There have been a couple of documentaries about it and a few people who claimed D B Cooper was their relative/friend etc but the documentary came to the conclusion that he fell into a river because some of the banknotes washed up and were traced to him.

[davebro3]

My guess would be that he didn't survive his parachute drop & his bones are lying somewhere undiscovered. That's not very cool!

[Khandro]

$200,000 banknotes in the river ? 😄

[Ken4155]

Perhaps he threw some of the banknotes in the river to make it look as if...............

[Arksided]

No that much wasn't found... "That much money... they will find you unless they think you're dead"

I think his accomplice (IF they were one) on the plane threw out the money... and D.B got off as an hostage, before it took off again.

[davebro3]

but none of the notes have been identified as turning up elsewhere....

[237SJ]

The documentary I saw was Storyville on iplayer but it's not available anymore.  D B Cooper Where Are You is on Netflix though.

[Arksided]

I haven't seen that... at the time the book I was reading was about disapearances and conspiracies... Amelia Earhart, Lord Lucan etc...

[Khandro]

237sj Thanks for that info, I had no idea it was a Netflix series.

I shall have a look:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/db_cooper_where_are_you/s01

[10ClarionSt]

It was roughly $5,600 that was found by a young boy on the banks of the Columbia River in Washington in 1980, nine years after DB Cooper jumped from the plane. The money had deteriorated badly but was held together by rubber bands. The odd thing about the rubber bands, according to the "experts", is that they would only have a normal lifetime of 18 months, but these were still fully stretchable, 9 years after. The FBI closed the case in 2016.