The FBI announced Tuesday it dropped its 45-year pursuit of the notorious U.S. hijacker known only by the pseudonym “D.B. Cooper.”
The FBI conceded it exhausted all credible leads in searching for the man who pulled off the perfect crime in 1971.
“In order to solve a case, the FBI must prove culpability beyond a reasonable doubt, and, unfortunately, none of the well-meaning tips or applications of new investigative technology have yielded the necessary proof,” Ayn Dietrich-Williams of the Seattle FBI office said in a statement. “Every time the FBI assesses additional tips for the NORJAK case, investigative resources and manpower are diverted from programs that more urgently need attention.”
She stressed the case was not closed and urged individuals who recover evidence to bring it the bureau’s attention.
“Although the FBI will no longer actively investigate this case, should specific physical evidence emerge—related specifically to the parachutes or the money taken by the hijacker—individuals with those materials are asked to contact their local FBI field office,” she said.
D.B. Cooper boarded a Boeing 727 with a bomb in his sleek black attache on Nov. 24, 1971.
Hours later, at 8:13 p.m., Cooper parachuted off the plane with $200,000 from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and was never seen again.
Practically nothing is known amount the man who identified himself as Dan Cooper at the Northwest Orient Airlines (NOA) counter of Portland International Airport on Thanksgiving Eve 1971.
An exhaustive account of all known data was compiled by Ralph Himmelsbach, the FBI agent who led the Cooper investigation, in his book “Norjak: The Investigation Of D.B. Cooper.” Himmelsbach says Cooper was polite, placid and wore Wayfarer sunglasses, a dark rain coat, a smart, neatly pressed white shirt with black necktie and mother of pearl pin. He sat alone on the 2:15 pm flight from Portland to Seattle, lighting a cigarette and nursing a bourbon before handing a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner indicating he had a bomb.
He ordered a second bourbon, paid his tab, and instructed authorities on the ground via the cockpit to assemble four parachutes and $200,000 in negotiable American currency, according to Himmelsbach’s book.
The plane circled Puget Sound for several hours while airport and law enforcement scrambled to assemble the materials, on orders from NOA President Donald Nyrop to accommodate all of Cooper’s demands. The flight landed in Seattle at quarter of 6:00, and an operations manager approached the aircraft with four parachutes from a local flight school and 10,000 unmarked $20 bills, the passengers deplaned thereafter.
The flight ascended into the dark Pacific sky at 7:40, shadowed by two fighter jets from McChord Air Force Base. 20 minutes later, in the midst of high winds and heavy rain, Cooper, strapped to a parachute, deployed the plane’s airstair apparatus over the Washougal River – and jumped.
He was never seen again.
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