ON THIS DAY: In 1971, hijacker parachutes into thunderstorm with $200 000
A man hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines aircraft shortly after takeoff, demanding $200 000 ($1 238 198 in 2017) in ransom money.
The hijacker, calling himself D.B. Cooper, parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 into a raging thunderstorm over Washington State.
He had $200 000 ($1 238 198 in 2017) in ransom money in his possession.
Cooper took control of the aircraft shortly after takeoff, showing a flight attendant something that looked like a bomb and informing the crew that he wanted $200 000, four parachutes, and “no funny stuff.”
The plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where authorities met Cooper’s demands and evacuated most of the passengers.
Cooper then demanded that the plane fly toward Mexico at a low altitude and ordered the remaining crew into the cockpit.
At 20:13, as the plane flew over the Lewis River in southwest Washington, the plane’s pressure gauge recorded Cooper’s jump from the aircraft.
Wearing only wraparound sunglasses, a thin suit, and a raincoat, Cooper parachuted into a thunderstorm with winds in excess of 100m/h (160km/h) and temperatures well below zero at the 10,000-foot (3000m) altitude where he began his fall.
The storm prevented an immediate capture, and most authorities assumed he was killed during his apparently suicidal jump.
No trace of Cooper was found during a massive search.
In 1980, an eight-year-old boy uncovered a stack of nearly $5,880 of the ransom money in the sands along the north bank of the Columbia River, five miles from Vancouver, Washington.
Cooper’s fate remains a mystery.
Information courtesy of History.com.
