Netflix’s “DB Cooper: Where Are You?” is a deep dive into one of the vital legendary unsolved cases in historical past. The four-part docuseries, which premieres later this summer time, will look at the decades-old case of DB Cooper, an unidentified man who hijacked an airplane flying between Portland and Seattle in 1971. After escaping with $200,000, valued at almost $1.4 million at the moment, Cooper leapt from the airplane and vanished and not using a hint. Over the previous 50 years, investigators and crime specialists have labored to piece collectively Cooper’s identification — to no avail.
Theories counsel that Cooper might have been a Boeing worker, a talented paratrooper, or perhaps a notable serial killer. In 2016, the FBI formally suspended the lively Cooper investigation and launched proof from the airplane, together with a clip-on tie, a mother-of-pearl tie clip, and eight cigarette butts, sparking much more theories in regards to the skyjacker’s identification.
The Netflix collection, coproduced with Fulwell 73 Productions and PMZ Pictures, will embrace interviews with high investigators on the case and element their quest to iron out the one unsolved case of air piracy in commercial-aviation historical past.
Who Is DB Cooper?
Image Source: Getty / Bettmann
On the afternoon of Nov. 24, 1971, a person in a darkish go well with bought an airline ticket below the alias Dan Cooper. Due to a media miscommunication, his media epithet later grew to become DB Cooper, a slight variation on his precise pseudonym. The airplane, a Boeing 727 plane, took off for Seattle from Portland at roughly 2:50 p.m. PT. Shortly after takeoff, Cooper handed flight attendant Florence Schaffner a folded be aware. Assuming the be aware was the unidentified man’s telephone quantity, Schaffner dropped the paper into her purse, just for Cooper to lean ahead and whisper, “Miss, you’d higher have a look at that be aware. I’ve a bomb.”
Per the be aware’s directions, Schaffner moved to sit down subsequent to Cooper and requested to see the bomb. Opening his briefcase, Cooper confirmed the flight attendant eight crimson cylinders hooked up to wires and a cylindrical battery earlier than itemizing his calls for: $200,000, 4 manually-operated civilian parachutes, and an plane gasoline truck standing by in Seattle to be used upon their arrival. Schaffner relayed Cooper’s calls for to Flight 305’s pilot, William A. Scott, who advised the opposite 35 passengers onboard that their flight to Seattle can be delayed as a consequence of “minor mechanical problem.”
As police assembled a bunch of emergency responders and gathered Cooper’s calls for — together with 10,000 unmarked $20 payments — the airplane circled over Puget Sound, WA, for 2 hours. During this time, Cooper commented on the structure of the land beneath them, and witnesses claimed that he was calm, well-spoken, and well mannered, even going as far as to supply to request meals for the flight crew forward of their arrival in Seattle.
When the airplane lastly landed at Seattle Tacoma Airport in heavy rain, Northwest Orient’s Seattle operations supervisor, Al Lee, delivered Cooper’s ransom and parachutes. Satisfied, Cooper let all of the passengers and flight attendants off the airplane. Once the airplane was refueled, they ascended again into the air, headed for Reno–Tahoe International Airport. Around 8 p.m., the remaining crew observed a sudden change in air strain, indicating that the aft door of the airplane was open. A couple of minutes later, because the airplane was flying over a heavily-wooded space, there was a sudden motion towards the plane’s tail part, possible indicating that this was the second Cooper jumped from the airplane along with his ransom. Available proof means that Cooper landed someplace close to the Washougal River and didn’t survive the leap, however no physique was ever discovered.
Investigators shortly gathered composite sketches, eyewitness reviews, and bodily proof following the hijacking. Police additionally performed arial and floor searches, following numerous leads with no luck. On Feb. 10, 1980, an 8-year-old boy named Brian Ingram found three packets of the ransom money, totaling round $5,800, as he dug within the sandy riverbank on the Columbia River at a beachfront referred to as Tina Bar. Police evaluation later confirmed that 10 payments had been lacking from one of many packets of heavily-deteriorated ransom money and that the cash had been buried within the riverbank a number of months after the hijacking. No extra payments from Cooper’s ransom have been found.
While the FBI formally suspended lively investigation of the case in 2016, anybody who might encounter new bodily proof linked to the Cooper case is inspired to submit it for additional evaluation. Ahead, be taught extra in regards to the case’s high suspects.
“DB Cooper: Where Are You?” Release Date
The four-part docuseries will hit Netflix on July 13 and can check out the 50-year investigation into Cooper’s true identification. Ahead, see proof pointing to 14 suspects, together with a number of skydiving specialists and Marvel’s Loki.
