A Mysterious Hijacker

Hijacker

 

 November 24, 1971

 

       The Boeing 727 flew from Portland to Seattle. He smoked a cigarette and ordered bourbon with soda.

 The flight attendant, Florence, was sitting next to him. After ordering bourbon and soda, he pulled a slip out of his pocket and gave it to Florence.

 He looked like a businessman.He was 40 year old. He was wearing a business suit over a clean white shirt.

 Florence glanced at the folded slip and thought it was a phone number and put it in her purse.

 

 "Miss, it would be better if you read this slip. I have a bomb."

 He leaned over to Florence and whispered in her ear.

 Florence wondered how he could bring the bomb on the plane, so he must be joking.

 Florence asked him to show her the bomb.

 When he opened his briefcase, Florence's face expressions changed in seconds.

 The briefcase was designed so that when it was opened, it had four cylinders in each of its two compartments, as well as different colored wires and timers. The bomb could change the aircraft into several pieces in seconds.

 After showing Florence the bomb in the briefcase, he calmly closed the briefcase and smiled meaningfully at Florence.

 Florence woke up quietly and passed the bad news to the pilot and other crew.

 When the news spread among the crew of the plane, there was a stir. The staff confirmed after hearing the news and questioned the man about his demands.

 

 "I need 200,000 dollars, four parachutes and a fuel truck for fueling the plane to go further."

 He conveyed his demands to the crew with great satisfaction.

 

 He then explained to the crew where the fuel truck would put the fuel in the plane and the plane would move forward.

 He knew full details about the plane's destination and route.

 Shortly after, staff reported the situation to the control tower and the control tower contacted legal agencies.

 Staff from the control tower were instructed to cooperate fully with the hijacker. And the hijacker was given full assurances about the money and the fuel truck.

 The hijacker and the crew agreed that in 20 minutes they would arrive at Seattle Airport, where the plane would be refueled and all passengers would be released from plane.

 

 The plane arrived at Seattle Airport in a state of shock. The case was now in the hands of law enforcement agencies from airport security.

 And the law enforcement agencies were trying their best to avoid any untoward incident, so they were ready to obey the hijacker.

 

 All passengers were unloaded at Seattle Airport, the plane was refueled, and four parachutes and 200,000 dollars were handed over to the hijacker.

Escape

 He seemed to have a very clever mind. He did not trust the military parachute he was given, so he refused to take the military parachute, they had to arrange a sports parachute from a nearby sports shop.

 

 The plane now flew to Mexico, with two pilots, a flight attendant and an engineer on board, according to the hijacker's order.

 

 It was about eight o'clock in the morning, and it was raining heavily in Mexico and its suburbs.

 The crew had no idea where they were being taken.

 On the other hand, two US Air Force planes were sent behind the plane, one on top of the plane and the other on the bottom, the hijacker and other crew members were not aware of it.

 

 The hijacker ordered all crew members to go into the cockpit. The crew did not know what to do.

 

 Shortly afterwards, a system alarm in the cockpit alerted crew that the stairs leading down from the plane were being activated.

 

 The people in the cockpit were surprised that he was ready to jump off the plane even in this very bad weather. He wore one parachute, got second parachute as an extra, cut off the other two parachutes and tied his bombed briefcase and ransom money around his waist.

 

 "Can we help you?"

 The crew asked the hijacker via the plane's intercom.

 

 "No, I know everything, no one get out of the cockpit until the plane arrive at the airport."

 He responded to the crew and the crew felt the air pressure in the plane.

 

 He opened the door of the plane and activated the ladder. The crew was still wondering how he could jump off the plane in the dark and heavy rain of the night.

 

 The crew probably thought he was an ordinary man while he was a specialist.

 When he came down the stairs with his luggage, the thunder and lightning were still going on, and even in the bright light produced by the thunder, nothing but black clouds could be seen.

 Even so, he knew which forest skies the plane was currently traveling in.

 

 And then he did what he had to do, he jumped and in a second disappeared somewhere in the darkness of night, strong winds, rain and thunder.

 

 It was ten o'clock at night when the plane landed at Reno Airport and its stairs and door were still open.

 Local police cordoned off the plane but soon learned that the hijacker was no longer on board.

 

       A total of 66 fingerprints were collected from the plane and an FBI agent also found a small clip of the hijacker's tie in the plane, from which a DNA sample was also taken.

 

 All on board were interviewed and a sketch of the hijacker was prepared.

 All major institutions in the country and abroad were contacted and given serial numbers of ransom currency notes.

 

 At the time of its jump, FBI searched all the areas where plane passed through but could not find out about the hijacker.

 He had booked a ticket under the name Dan Cooper. Statements were recorded from all the people of the country of this name, but all were in vain.

The Unsolved Mystery

       Nine years later, in February 1980, an 8-year-old boy was on holiday with his family on the Columbia River when he saw packets of banknotes sunk into the ground. These were the same notes that hijacker Dan Cooper received as ransom from the US government. Of the 2 lac dollars, 9710 was missing, but after years of research, it was not clear where or by whom the notes were spent.

 

 Who was Dan Cooper?

 

 There were many opinions about Dane Cooper. Even the officials could not agree on any idea about it till date.

 

 Cooper is considered by many to be a suspenseful and insane man of fiction.

 They say Cooper seems to be inspired by Canada's famous comic book hero.

 The hero in this comic book is Dan Cooper and he is an agent of the Canadian Air Force.

 But on the other hand, it is said that the comic book was never translated into English and never sold in the United States.

 So was Dan Cooper a Canadian fanatic who played the role of a fiction hero and then jumped off a plane and couldn't survive?

 According to FBI speculation, Dan Cooper was an obsessive man because it was impossible for him to survive in the circumstances in which he jumped off the plane. According to a estimate, the temperature was above -50 at that time, so it is difficult for the hijacker Cooper to open his parachute. He jumped out of the plane and fell into the river as soon as he landed. He had parachuted the currency notes, so the notes would have come to the river a few days later.

 

 Cooper is also said to have been a highly trained skyjacker and survived. Because he knew as much about the plane as the crew did, he knew at what point the plane was flying. He allowed as many people as needed on board, ordered four parachutes, and refused to take a military parachute. Also He selected a plane for hijacking that could be easily jumped and refueled from any fuel truck that is not usually found in plane. He also had complete knowledge of the plane's techniques. He opened the door of the plane himself and then activated the ladder. Not easy for any ordinary traveler or hijacker.

 

 The FBI has been searching for Dan Cooper for 45 years, in these 45 years thousands of defendants have been prosecuted for being Dan Cooper, but insufficient evidence has proved that they are not Dan Cooper.

 Many people went to TV programs and courts to record their statements that they knew Dan Cooper personally. Some called their grandparents Dan Cooper for attention, while others used each other's names in the accusations, but to this day it is not known who Dan Cooper was.

 Where did he come from?

 Where did he go?

 Why he ask for 200,000 dollars?

 

 Finally, in 2016, instead of wasting more time and money on this case, the US government closed its file, declaring it an unresolved case.