On this day, a man calling himself Dan Cooper and later wrongly reported as D.B. Cooper, hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 bound for Seattle. On board, he told the flight crew he had a bomb, and demanded $200,000 in ransom ($1,600,000 in 2024) and four parachutes. Upon landing in Seattle, the money and parachutes were brought on board and Cooper released the passengers. He then directed the crew to refuel the aircraft and begin a second flight to Mexico City. Once in the air, he opened the aircraft’s aft door and parachuted to an uncertain fate over Washington. For forty-five years after the hijacking, the Federal Bureau of Investigation maintained an active investigation and built an extensive case file, but ultimately did not reach any definitive conclusions about Cooper’s identity or fate, though they speculate Cooper probably did not survive his jump. The crime is the only documented unsolved case of air piracy in the history of commercial aviation.
