One Man Who Shocked The Whole World!
D. B. Cooper is a media epithet popularly used to refer to an unidentified male who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the 173 mile airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on November 24, 1971. He extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,180,000 in 2016) and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and protracted FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been apprehended or identified. The case remains the only unsolved air piracy in American aviation history.
While available evidence and a preponderance of expert opinion suggested from the beginning that Cooper probably did not survive his risky jump, the FBI nevertheless maintained an active investigation for 45 years following the hijacking. Despite a case file that grew to over 60 volumes over that time period,[4] no definitive conclusions could be reached regarding Cooper's true identity or whereabouts. (The suspect purchased his airline ticket using the alias Dan Cooper but, because of a news media miscommunication, he became known in popular lore as "D. B. Cooper." In a Walter Cronkite newscast, he was identified as D.A. Cooper.
