- One of the Northwest's greatest mysteries is about a skyjacker who called himself Dan Cooper.

More widely known as DB Cooper.

On November 24th 1971, Thanksgiving Eve, Cooper threatened to blow up a Boeing 727 bound from Portland to Seattle, unless he paid $200,000 in $20 bills.

He sipped from a bourbon and soda, got the money and some parachutes then jumped into history.

To my mind his outrageous crime is not even the most odd thing about his story.

(bright upbeat music) To this day no one knows who DB Cooper was.

The name he gave for his airline ticket was Dan.

The name DB was said to be a media mistake, but it stuck.

For the last 50 years, people have been trying to find Cooper, not unlike Bigfoot hunters.

People have fingered their relatives and neighbors.

Deathbed confessions have been made, more than 800 suspects examined by the FBI.

There are many theories, but no definitive DB.

Let's quickly retrace the crime.

Cooper whoever he was, bought a single one way ticket from Portland to Seattle for $20 on Northwest Orient Flight 305.

On the plane, he slipped a note to the stewardess, saying he had a bomb in his briefcase.

This is back before airlines checked for such things.

Seeing what looked like a bomb, the flight attendant conveyed to the captain, that the man in his mid forties of medium height and build with brown eyes and a black suit, wanted the airline to cough up 200K, refuel the plane and fly him to Mexico City.

He wanted two parachutes with two reserve shoots just in case, why?

It's thought that he wanted the authorities to think he might jump with a hostage so they wouldn't sabotage the shoots.

The 727 landed in Seattle and the passengers and some of the crew were let off.

The money was brought on board, along with the parachutes and the plane took off with a refueling stop plan for Reno, Nevada.

Cooper insisted they fly no higher than 10,000 feet.

The remaining stewardess on board showed Cooper how to lower the aircraft's rear stairway.

Then she left the cabin for the safety of the cockpit leaving Cooper alone.

When they landed in Reno, Cooper, a shoot, its back up, the bomb and the money were gone.

The hijacker had jumped mid-flight somewhere between Seattle and Reno.

He left his clip and tie behind.

A massive manhunt ensued, with focus on Southwestern Washington.

It was theorized that Cooper must have been a former paratrooper or military man, even an airline employee.

Searchers scoured the woods for his shoot and loot or his body.

It was speculated that he would splat.

Jumping at night in high winds during a thunderstorm with cloud cover, so he couldn't see the ground.

He could have landed in the deep forest or the Columbia River.

After the jump, the rest of us were left looking for answers.

The FBI kept the case open, running down tips and leads.

In 1980 a boy digging a fire pit on the Columbia River beach on the Washington side at a place called Tena Bar, dug up $5,800 in ratty, deteriorating $20 bills whose serial numbers matched those on DB's ransom money.

The money was still bound in rubber bands.

Cooper was a mainstay on the FBI's most wanted list, but in 2016 they announced that they were focusing their energies on other priorities but he's still a wanted man.

If Cooper landed safely, and if he's still alive, he'd be in his mid nineties by now.

If he came forward, he'd be flushing celebrity and facing his twilight years in Club Fed.

To me the oddest thing about the a DB Cooper case is the public response to it.

After Cooper's, there were at least two dozen hijackings that featured copycat demands for ransom and parachutes.

So while some people wanted to catch DB Cooper, many others dreamed of being DB Cooper.

Back in 1971, when people first heard about him, he actually had a great deal of public sympathy.

Only four days after the hijacking, an article in the Seattle times collected the thoughts of what the person on the street in Seattle thought about the crime.

A taxi driver told the papers reporter you've got to admit he was clever the way I see it.

Anybody smart enough to take $200,000 just like that ought to make a clean getaway.

An army private said, I hope he isn't caught.

Such comments come with a context.

The early 1970s were still largely the 1960s.

Seattle was racked with the Boeing recession, anti-war protests and bombings, around the world skyjackings had become somewhat commonplace.

More than 130 American planes were hijacked between 1968 and 1972.

President Richard Nixon was reelected, but the Watergate scandal was gestating.

Wars hot and cold rage, social tumult had become a norm.

Youth rebellion was still in full flower hippies about it.

And DB Cooper, (bright upbeat music) despite his dapper black suit and clip on tie, cool shades and a taste for bourbon and soda.

The guy who pulled off a spectacular heist without anyone else being killed by a bomb or an overzealous SWAT team, somehow embodied for many, a cool anti-establishment rebel, that many ordinary folks could envy.

And like any great performer, DB Cooper made a dramatic and memorable exit that we're still talking about, half a century later.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] Mossback's Northwest is made possible by the generous support of Bedroom & More.