The Story Behind DB Cooper

When I first signed up to play online poker a few years back they of course asked for a user name and for some bizarre reason I chose DB Cooper. I constantly get asked or my name gets commented on by mostly older players. The young players for the most part have no idea who DB Cooper was.

I have always been fascinated with the legend of DBCooper. Did he get away with it?? Is he still alive somewhere or did he die parachuting from the airplane??

On November 24,1971 a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Airlines flight and demanded 200,000 in cash and two parachutes. He handed the Flight Attendant a note saying he had a bomb .The plane landed at Seatac Airport and his demands were met. All the passengers and one Flight Attendant were allowed to leave. The plane was refuelled. The mysterious man now known as DB Cooper said he wanted to head towards Mexico. He was told that the fuel would not carry them that far and they agreed on refuelling again in Reno Nevada. The plane then took off. The one remaining flight attendant and the 3 crew were ordered to stay in the cockpit and not come to the back. They were also told not to pressurize the cabin. About an hour into the flight the pilot noticed a red light signalling a door had been opened. This was somewhere over southern Washington state. They crew having been told to not come back proceeded to Reno landed the aircraft and discovered that DB Cooper was gone. He had parachuted out with the money strapped to his body.

To this day nobody knows whether he died on the way down or somehow got away with it. The only evidence ever found was near Vancouver Washington in 1980 a child digging in the sand discovered close to 6000 dollars of the money near Vancouver Washington. The FBI confirmed this was part of the 200,000 as the serial numbers matched. This tells me that DB Cooper survived the jump and possibly buried the money in different spots.

You have to remember these were the days before there was basically any security at airports.

So what really happened to DB Cooper? I don't think we will ever know but his legend lives on. Personally I think he got away with it.