was reading an article on this yesterday and wikipedia'd it.

how about coolest hijacking ever?

i had never heard about it till yesterday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

guy hijacked a plane, asked for $200k and 4 parachutes, then "en route" to mexico on the plane after releasing the passengers, he jumped out of the back and was never seen or heard from again, except for $5,800 of the money (serial numbers matched) found 10 years later near where he jumped

wikipedia article was the most info i could find. i love stories like this.

1/2/2008 1:30:26 PM

not a bad way to get some $$, if you want to end up drowning in a river and eaten by fishes.

1/2/2008 1:32:11 PM

My dad told me about him when I was little and the Cooper switch (which is apparently called the Cooper vane) that's in planes now.

1/2/2008 1:39:41 PM

That's the dude from that movie "Without a Paddle", right?


Holy crap, from the wikipedia article on one of the suspects:

Quote :

"Once incarcerated, using his access to the prison's dental office, McCoy fashioned a fake handgun out of dental paste. He and a crew of convicts escaped in August 1974 by stealing a garbage truck and crashing it through the prison's main gate. It took three months for the FBI to locate McCoy, in Virginia. McCoy allegedly shot at the FBI agents, and agent Nicholas O'Hara reportedly fired back with a shotgun, killing him."

What a badass

[Edited on January 2, 2008 at 2:02 PM. Reason : ]

1/2/2008 1:51:46 PM

1/2/2008 1:54:18 PM

I don't think the evidence they found is really an indication that he died. This plan was brilliant at the time. Tossing the placard during the skydive and dropping $5800 after the landing seems like something he would do just to make people think he passed away.

I think we can only assume that if he was smart enough to get out of the plane with $200,000 cash then he probably had a decent plan for hiding his trail and sending investigators down dead end paths.

1/2/2008 1:55:07 PM

he jumped in the middle of a big thunderstorm they were flying through, and apparently at altitude, there were 200 mph windgusts according to the cnn article...

so that might fuck up your escape plan, but it would also be the perfect cover for getting away and making everyone think you were dead.

1/2/2008 1:57:24 PM

Yeah, he totally could be dead, but he might not be either.

1/2/2008 2:00:13 PM

The guy they thought be be Cooper for a while, John List, has a crazy story himself.

He was the basis for that movie The Stepfather.

1/2/2008 2:12:38 PM

D.B. Cooper = Jimmy James

1/2/2008 2:48:22 PM

^ thats the first thing I thought of. Mr. James.

1/2/2008 10:28:04 PM

there was a history channel special on it a while back, pretty interesting.

1/3/2008 2:31:44 AM

1/3/2008 3:16:05 AM

Quote :

"^ thats the first thing I thought of. Mr. James."

1/3/2008 7:51:17 AM

and people to this day still scours the mountains looking for the remains of DB Cooper and his cash

[Edited on January 3, 2008 at 9:37 AM. Reason : sdfg]

1/3/2008 9:37:01 AM

I love this shirt.

1/3/2008 9:48:48 AM

I googled this story and came up with an article just published today

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3303655.ece

1/3/2008 10:34:10 AM

^

Quote :

"was reading an article on this yesterday and wikipedia'd it."

any time there is an article on reuters or AP it's going to show up in hundreds of papers and news sources

1/3/2008 11:41:10 AM

If you're really interested in it, there is an hour long special out there on one of the channels like the History channel all about the heist. I think that they even tested the possibility of someone jumping with all of that gear/money and making it to shore.

[Edited on January 3, 2008 at 2:57 PM. Reason : .]

1/3/2008 2:56:14 PM

I'm sure I could do it... But I've been skydiving for nine years.

1/3/2008 3:00:12 PM

Quote :

"Expert: Chute Wasn't From D.B. Cooper April 1, 2008 - 4:11pm The serial number 307551 and the date Feb. 21, 1946 are stamped on a parachute found in North Clark County, Wash. as seen in Seattle on Tuesday, March 25, 2008. The FBI is working to find out if it is linked to the infamous D.B. Cooper case from 1971. (AP Photo/Kevin P. Casey) VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - A recently discovered parachute could not have been used by D.B. Cooper in 1971, says the man who packed the four chutes that were given to the mysterious skyjacker. The torn, tangled parachute _ found about a month ago by children along a dirt road near Amboy _ was probably made around 1945, said Earl Cossey, who examined the chute for the FBI on Friday. The FBI said the matter remained under investigation. A man who had given his name as Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in November 1971, claiming he had a bomb. After the plane landed at Seattle, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and four parachutes and asked to be flown to Mexico. He then bailed out of the jet as it flew somewhere near the Oregon line. Some of the money given to him was found in 1980 along the Columbia River, but the fate of Cooper remains unknown. Many think he could not have survived the jump. Cossey, who sold parachutes at a skydiving operation in Issaquah in the 1970s, had provided the chutes that the FBI gave Cooper. He told The Columbian of Vancouver that the newly found chute "absolutely, for sure" could not have been one of the four that he provided. "The D.B. Cooper parachute was made of nylon," he said. "This 1945 parachute was made of silk." FBI Agent Robert A. Burroughs in Seattle said Monday that agents had not ruled out the possibility that the chute was from Cooper. "We haven't made a determination one way or the other yet," Burroughs said. "We're still in the process of finishing up what investigative steps we think are necessary to feel certain about calling it one way or the other." The FBI had launched a publicity campaign last fall, hoping to generate new tips to solve the 36-year-old mystery. ___ On the Net: FBI on Cooper: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec07/dbcooper123107.html (Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - A recently discovered parachute could not have been used by D.B. Cooper in 1971, says the man who packed the four chutes that were given to the mysterious skyjacker. The torn, tangled parachute _ found about a month ago by children along a dirt road near Amboy _ was probably made around 1945, said Earl Cossey, who examined the chute for the FBI on Friday. The FBI said the matter remained under investigation. A man who had given his name as Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in November 1971, claiming he had a bomb. After the plane landed at Seattle, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and four parachutes and asked to be flown to Mexico. He then bailed out of the jet as it flew somewhere near the Oregon line. Some of the money given to him was found in 1980 along the Columbia River, but the fate of Cooper remains unknown. Many think he could not have survived the jump. Cossey, who sold parachutes at a skydiving operation in Issaquah in the 1970s, had provided the chutes that the FBI gave Cooper. He told The Columbian of Vancouver that the newly found chute "absolutely, for sure" could not have been one of the four that he provided. "The D.B. Cooper parachute was made of nylon," he said. "This 1945 parachute was made of silk." FBI Agent Robert A. Burroughs in Seattle said Monday that agents had not ruled out the possibility that the chute was from Cooper. "We haven't made a determination one way or the other yet," Burroughs said. "We're still in the process of finishing up what investigative steps we think are necessary to feel certain about calling it one way or the other." The FBI had launched a publicity campaign last fall, hoping to generate new tips to solve the 36-year-old mystery."

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=104&sid=1378041

4/1/2008 4:48:07 PM

damnit

4/1/2008 5:07:40 PM

they already solved this case in Journeyman. [old]

4/4/2008 6:00:28 PM

4/4/2008 6:52:42 PM

^ thats awesome

4/4/2008 9:19:47 PM

was 200,000 like a lot money back in hte day?

4/5/2008 1:35:09 AM

(insert austin powers quote here)

4/5/2008 2:37:52 AM

Quote :

"Adjusted for inflation, $200,000 in 1971 has the buying power of $1,045,397.53 in 2008"

4/5/2008 7:39:04 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFZhLu6CXoI

4/5/2008 9:34:48 AM

I've been obsessed with the whole DB Cooper mystery for years. Apparently one of the characters on the show Prison Break is supposed to be DB Cooper

4/5/2008 11:13:49 AM

only a million? that not really worth the effort

4/5/2008 3:41:00 PM

If your plan was to head to Mexico is a shit ton. More than enough to live out the rest of your life in luxury.

4/5/2008 3:42:16 PM

^^^As have I. Sadly, I don' think it will ever be solved. I like to think he got away with it. I am sure something would have turned up by now other than the little bit of money they did find. One theory is that he crashed into one of the many lakes in the area and sank and therefore thats why nobody ever found any remains or parachute. If he had just crashed into the woods and died on impact, something would have turned up by now I would imagine.

4/5/2008 3:57:35 PM

Quote :

"he jumped in the middle of a big thunderstorm they were flying through, and apparently at altitude, there were 200 mph windgusts according to the cnn article..."

lol...false

4/5/2008 11:00:00 PM

The air speed that was 200mph was due to jumping out of the plane that was traveling aprox that fast when he jumped.

4/6/2008 1:26:25 AM