FBI to close file on 1971 skyjack mystery?

Marla Cooper, the niece of a man thought to have demanded a $200,000 ransom in 1971 to ensure the safe landing of a plane, before bailing out himself using a parachute, came forward earlier this year to tell the criminal investigation agency her uncle had appeared at her house, badly injured, the day after the incident.

Ms Cooper, who was only eight years old at the time, says he claimed his injuries were the result of a car crash. She never saw her uncle, whom she called LD Cooper, after that day. LD Cooper died in 1999.

Speaking to a US TV station, she explained that she had approached the FBI in order to unburden herself of the 40-year-old family secret, and that her FBI contact had subsequently told her: “I am certain your uncle did it. I feel certain that your uncle did it. And that… what’s the point in continuing the investigation?”

FBI officials have refused to comment on the specifics of the investigation.

Ransom demand – plus parachutes

On 24 November 1971, Thanksgiving eve, a man identifying himself as Dan Cooper boarded a Northwest Airlines flight at Portland International Airport, in Oregon, bound for Seattle, in Washington. He was wearing a suit and sunglasses.

I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. You are being hijacked. Hijack note from ‘DB Cooper’

During the flight, he passed a note to a flight attendant, which read: “I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked.”

Cooper demanded a $200,000 ransom, together with four parachutes, to be picked up when the plane touched down in Seattle. FBI agents assembled the money, which was transferred to the plane at Seattle-Tacoma Airport. All the passengers and two flight attendants were allowed to leave the plane in Seattle.

The plane took off again with only Cooper and the flight crew aboard. By the time it touched down at Rena Airport less than half an hour later, Cooper was no longer on board.

Serious suspects

The suspect, who became known as DB Cooper in popular lore, was never seen again.

The FBI has processed more than 1,000 “serious suspects” since the incident occurred, most of which have been definitively ruled out.

In February 1980 a young boy uncovered three disintegrated packets of the ransom cash on the Columbia River, downstream from Vancouver, Washington – in the approximate vicinity of the area where Cooper was estimated to have landed.