The mysterious disappearance of D.B. Cooper has baffled law enforcement and amateur investigators alike for over half a century. Now, one Cooper enthusiast believes he might have a new lead.
On Nov. 24, 1971, a middle-aged man wearing a business suit with a black tie and a white shirt took control of a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle carrying 36 passengers.
According to the FBI, the man handed a note to a flight attendant that said he had a bomb in his briefcase and wanted her to sit with him. He then opened the briefcase and showed her a glimpse of wires and red sticks inside. The man then gave the flight attendant a note demanding $200,000 and four parachutes.
After the plane landed at Sea-Tac Airport, the ransom and parachutes were brought on board as passengers were offboarded. The plane refueled and took off again with Cooper and a small group of crew members. Hours later while over the southern Washington border, Cooper put on a parachute and jumped from the plane with the bag of cash in his arms.
To this day, it’s the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. history. But according to a release from investigator and D.B. Cooper enthusiast Eric Ulis, new information from the Seattle air traffic controller from that day “has led to a new promising search area.”
“Specifically, a treacherous tree and blackberry lined trench, which occasionally contains small amounts of water,” Ulis described.
“I am absolutely certain that the heavy parachute D.B. Cooper jumped with is still near where the man landed 52 years ago,” he added. “We are searching in the correct area and will find the parachute.”
He plans to lead the new search on Oct. 26.
Ulis runs a yearly event in Seattle known as CooperCon. He was also featured in a 2022 Netflix series titled “D.B. Cooper, Where Are You.”
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