D.B. Cooper by Alex Sander

         What happened on November 24, 1971, still leaves thought to many, including the FBI. Known to the media as “D.B Cooper,” he hijacked an airplane claiming he had a bomb. After being granted his ransom of $200,000 Cooper was gone, he parachuted out where authorities suspect was somewhere in Washington State. Over the years, many conspiracy theories have been developed:

                        Did he die in the fall?

                        Did he parachute safely down and escaped with the cash?

                        Is D.B Cooper really Kenneth Christiansen?

            D.B. Cooper is a name without a face, without a background, without evidence. Rather, D.B. Cooper is an embodiment of possibly the most famous unsolved crime in history. The hypothetical D.B. Cooper managed to hijack a plane, collect $200,000 ransom in cash, and vanish into thin air. D.B. Cooper was actually Dan Cooper, until the media mistakenly referred to him as D.B. Cooper and the name stuck (Gray). Dan Cooper was the name the man used to buy his one way plane ticket to Seattle, a mere 30 minute flight from Portland (1). Dan Cooper was just a pseudonym used to buy the plane ticket, discovered after the hijacking when the name didn’t connect to anyone who fit the profile of the hijacker. Cooper was not your stereotypical plane hijacker. The plane stewardess actually described him as quite the opposite in the article Unmasking D.B. Cooper: He was not a so-called sky pirate, which she’d read about in the papers, or a hardened criminal. He was not a political dissident with a wish to reroute the plane to Cuba, like many of the hijackers until then. He was polite. Well spoken. A gentlemen. At one point, he offered to pay for his drinks with a $20 bill and insisted the stewardess keep the rest ($18) as change. Cooper’s calm resolve seems to hint towards the idea that perhaps he felt no internal conflict at all. Most people in a similar situation, with a bomb in their bag, demanding a large amount of ransom money, would be expected to show some signs of nervousness, whether it be through sweating, shaking, or rudeness. On the contrary, Cooper was none of those, almost entirely avoiding external conflict besides his communication with the stewardess. Does that mean Cooper felt no guilt about the hijacking because he felt that the money was going towards a just cause, or it was something that had to be done? Or was Cooper a psychopath simply unable to feel remorse or question his own actions? Cooper’s persona outside of the hijacking itself remains unknown. It was thought that he was from the Seattle area when the stewardess heard him say “Looks like Tacoma down there” when glancing out the plane window. Yet, if someone was going to pull off a plane hijacking successfully without getting caught, the chances that they would do it in a location where they could possibly be recognized by someone they knew are slim to none. This leads back to ground zero, with no concrete evidence on D.B. Cooper’s background. In a crime shrouded with mystery, D.B. Cooper’s true identity and character remains arguably the most puzzling piece of the story. It is haunting to think about D.B. Cooper’s lack of emotion throughout the event, and wonder whether it was due to justification or a serious mental problem. The lack of external conflict throughout the affair also makes room for endless questions about the reason for the hijacking. Why demand $200,000 to never contact anyone or be seen again? He was a real life ghost, seemingly appearing out of thin air and just as quickly vanishing back into it.

 

            In the only unsolved air piracy case in American history which involves D.B Cooper, three conspiracy theories are heavily touched. Of the theories, the first one provides comfort for most suggesting that Cooper died in the fall down from the plane. The other two theories are associated with $200,000 ransom. The first conspiracy theory proposes that Cooper plummeted to his death out of the plane. Many investigators including Special agent Carr of the FBI who worked the case believe that Cooper was a very experienced skydiver or maybe even a paratrooper. “We concluded after a few years this was simply not true. No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch- black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky. He also missed that his reserve chute was only for training and had been sewn shut—something a skilled skydiver would have checked.” (Eddy.) Even if Cooper did make it to the ground it was winter time and not having the right equipment is deadly. Many investigators think that Cooper had very little chance of surviving the jump. “Diving into the wilderness without a plan, without the right equipment, in such terrible conditions, he probably never even got his chute open.”(1) However Coopers’ body or parachute have never been found. The second conspiracy theory suggests that Cooper parachuted safely down and escaped with the ransom. Throughout multiple investigations authorities just don’t have enough information to rule out anything. $5,800 of the ransom money was recovered ‘in 1980 just north of Portland on the Columbia River, a young boy named Brian Ingram was digging a fire pit in the sand at a place called Tena Bar. He uncovered three bundles of cash a couple inches below the surface, with rubber bands still intact.” (Lewis) Some say that Cooper buried it for a rainy day and others believe that it floated down multiple rivers and was eventually buried by time. The third conspiracy advises that the mysterious D.B Cooper is actually Kenneth Christiansen. Lyle Christiansen who was an elderly man at the time, was convinced that his late brother was the infamous Cooper. Kenneth was a paratrooper who was just deployed after World War II. When he left the military he got a job for North Orient Airlines, which was the same airline “Cooper” had hijacked. “Author Gray showed Kenneth’s photo to the only hijack witness who’s still alive, a woman who’d been a flight attendant that November night, and she acknowledged the resemblance” (Eddy, Cheryl.) Why is Kenneth Christiansen the one who most turn to when they think of D.B Cooper? Because of the eerie likeness between him and the notorious descriptions of Cooper. Kenneth who was a paratrooper which authorizes believe Cooper was, is an iffy conspiracy to go off of but the fact that “Kenny” worked for the same airline that Cooper hijacked a plane from is very suspicious. A survey of twenty-five people uncovered that 80% agree that the conspiracy that most likely occurred is that D.B Cooper parachuted from the aircraft down to safety and escaped with the ransom money. There just isn’t enough evidence that can overturn this conspiracy because of the fact that a body or parachute have neither been found. Hopefully more evidence will soon emerge along with truth to one of the most famous crimes of all time.

            The D.B Cooper case remains the only unsolved air piracy case in American history. Over the years the high jacking has developed into three conspiracy theories:

Did he die in the fall?

Did he parachute safely down and escape with the cash?

Is D.B Cooper really Kenneth Christainsen?

Although some ransom money was found in the area of the high jacking, no body or parachute have ever been recovered and the hunt for the infamous D.B Cooper continues.

Work Cited

"D.B. Cooper, Everything You Need to Know...". Web. 31 Oct. 2016.

Eddy, Cheryl. "The 8 Most Intriguing Theories About Skyjacker D.B. Cooper." Io9. N.p., 23 Apr. 2015. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

 Lewis, Michael. "D.B. Cooper: Everything You Need to Know in 5 Minutes." D.B. Cooper: Everything You Need to Know in 5 Minutes. Citizen Sleuths, 07 June 2013. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

 "In Search of D.B. Cooper." FBI. FBI, 17 Mar. 2009. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Gray, Geoffrey. Published Oct 21, 2007. "Unmasking D.B. Cooper." NYMag.com. N.p., 21 May 2015. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.