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What If D. B. Cooper Survived the Jump?

The Northwest Orient Airlines ticket bought in the name Dan Cooper, photographed by the FBI
The Northwest Orient Airlines ticket bought in the name Dan Cooper, photographed by the FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Public domain. Picture source

In 1971 a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a jet, collected $200,000 and four parachutes, and jumped from the back stairs into a freezing night over Washington State. This story follows him down and imagines that he lived, using the FBI's own words, the crew's statements and the money found in 1980 under every chapter.

How to read it: start at chapter 1 and go in order. Each chapter tells the story first, then quotes the record it rests on and says what is actually known.

  1. 1. A Ticket Bought with CashOn the day before Thanksgiving 1971, a quiet man pays cash in Portland for a one-way ticket to Seattle under the name Dan Cooper.Wednesday, November 24, 1971, Portland International Airport, early afternoon
  2. 2. The NoteSoon after takeoff he hands a flight attendant a note saying he has a bomb, shows her wires and red sticks, and names his price.November 24, 1971, Flight 305 leaves Portland at 2:50 pm
  3. 3. Ten Thousand TwentiesThe plane circles Seattle while the bank, the police and the airline gather the money and four parachutes, and the passengers are traded for them.November 24, 1971, about 3:00 to 7:40 pm, over Puget Sound and at Sea-Tac
  4. 4. The Stairs Go DownAlone in the back of the plane, he lowers the rear stairs into the freezing dark, and a little after 8 pm he jumps.November 24, 1971, about 7:45 to 8:13 pm, over southwest Washington
  5. 5. An Empty Cabin in RenoThe jet lands in Reno with its stairs still down, and the crew finds the cabin empty except for two parachutes and a clip-on tie.November 24, 1971, 11:02 pm, Reno, Nevada
  6. 6. A Man Walks Out of the WoodsUnder a parachute in sleet and darkness, he lands somewhere in the hills north of Portland, and the story imagines how he gets away while the search looks in the wrong place.Night of November 24, 1971, and the searches of 1971 and 1972, Clark and Cowlitz counties, Washington
  7. 7. Money He Could Never SpendThe serial numbers go public, no ransom bill ever turns up in a shop, a boy finds three rotting bundles on a Columbia River beach in 1980, and in 2016 the FBI stops actively investigating.1972 to 2016, from the published serial numbers to Tena Bar and the end of the active case
This is a story, not proven history

This is a story built on the record, not a solved case: nobody knows who the hijacker was or whether he survived, many FBI agents think he died in the jump, and the story names no one as Cooper.

All sources

  1. Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which saves copies of web pages over time. We link it when the original page has gone; the saved copy shows exactly what the page said.FBI, 'D.B. Cooper Hijacking', Famous Cases and Criminals (archived copy; the live page blocks automated checks)
  2. FBI Records: The VaultThe FBI's official online reading room, with scans of files released under the Freedom of Information Act, the law that lets the public ask for government records. The pages are the FBI's own documents, often with parts blacked out.FBI Records: The Vault, 'D.B. Cooper' case file (NORJAK), released in parts
  3. FBI, 'July 2016: D.B. Cooper Plane Ticket' (FBI Artifact of the Month photo and caption, public domain), Wikimedia Commons
  4. Kathrine Beck, 'Dan Cooper parachutes from skyjacked jetliner on November 24, 1971', HistoryLink.org Essay 1997 (2011)
  5. Casey McNerthney, '$5,800 of airplane hijacker D. B. Cooper's ransom money is found near the Columbia River on February 10, 1980', HistoryLink.org Essay 23059 (2024), which cites FBI Vault Parts 11 and 67
  6. WikipediaA free online encyclopedia written and edited by volunteers. It is a good starting point and usually lists its own sources, but anyone can change it, so we treat it as a guide to better sources, not the final word.Wikipedia, 'D. B. Cooper' (quotes FBI Vault file pages with part and page numbers)
  7. DOI link to a research paperA DOI is a permanent ID number for a published research paper or book. The link takes you to the paper on its publisher's website, even if that site moves. The paper itself is what we cite.Tom G. Kaye and Malcolm Meltzer, 'Diatoms constrain forensic burial timelines: case study with DB Cooper money', Scientific Reports 10, 13036 (2020)
  8. Associated Press, 'Will the FBI ever find the true identity of DB Cooper?', Christian Science Monitor, July 12, 2016 (quotes the FBI Seattle statement)
  9. NBC NewsThe news division of NBC, one of the major US television networks. A mainstream news source with professional editors; it reports on events rather than being the original record.Associated Press, 'FBI Ends Active Search for Vanished 1970s Skyjacker D.B. Cooper', NBC News, July 12, 2016

Questions people ask about What If D. B. Cooper Survived the Jump?

Did D. B. Cooper survive the jump?

Nobody knows. He jumped from a Boeing 727 a little after 8 pm on November 24, 1971, at night, in sleet, wearing a business suit and raincoat. Some FBI agents believed he made it; others, including case agent Larry Carr, believed he died. No body, parachute or confirmed spending of the ransom has ever been found.

Was any of D. B. Cooper's money ever found?

Yes, once. On February 10, 1980, an 8-year-old boy, Brian Ingram, found three rotting packets of twenty-dollar bills, $5,800 in all, at Tena Bar on the Columbia River below Vancouver, Washington. The FBI matched their serial numbers to the ransom. The rest, about $194,000, has never turned up.

Is the D. B. Cooper case closed?

The FBI stopped actively investigating in July 2016 after 45 years, saying it had exhaustively reviewed all credible leads. It still asks people to contact a field office if they find physical evidence tied to the parachutes or the ransom money. No one has ever been charged by name.

Why is he called D. B. Cooper?

He bought his ticket as Dan Cooper. The initials D. B. came from a press mistake on the night of the hijacking; Portland police had questioned a local man named D. B. Cooper who was quickly cleared, and the wrong name spread through the news.

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