
After 45 years, FBI closes investigation into unsolved 'DB Cooper' hijacking - Jerry2
http://komonews.com/news/local/fbi-officially-closes-its-investigation-into-famous-db-cooper-hijacking
======
aresant
Most DB Cooper references I've read consider him to be some cross between a
folk-hero and lovable-rogue due to the audacity of his crime, lack of harm to
civilians, and the idea that he might have actually gotten away with it.

But fascinating to read the Wikipedia entry and realize that DB Cooper, and
the no less than 15 copycat "parachute hijackings" he inspired in the same
year, created a watershed moment in Airport Security that accelerated our
steady march to today's over bearing TSA:

"In all, 15 hijackings similar to Cooper's—all unsuccessful—were attempted in
1972.[130] With the advent of universal luggage searches in 1973 (see Airport
security) the general incidence of hijackings dropped precipitously.[131]"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper)

~~~
PhantomGremlin
_our steady march to today 's over bearing TSA_

Before all those hijackings, there was _no_ airport security screening. None
at all! I know that's hard to believe, but we've all gotten used to it since
we've had _something_ in place now for about 40 years.

There has to be something we can do to ensure safety, but that's less
overbearing than today's TSA.

~~~
mcbits
I think at this point we have all the technology to replace most air travel
with a network of autonomous family-sized aircraft hopping between cities
within a few hundred miles, probably not costing much more than a Greyhound
ticket.

Then the big security threat shifts from what a hijacker can do with a jet
packed full of humans and fuel to what a hacker can do by seizing control of
the whole network, but the travel experience itself wouldn't need such
invasive screening.

~~~
Swizec
Errr ... how about no?

All my family lives in Europe. I live on the US west coast. "hopping city to
city" would turn a 1 day nuissance into an arduous journey.

No thanks. I already see my family only once to twice a year.

Considering there are multiple flights per day between SFO and Paris and other
EU hubs, I think my case is far from being a corner case.

~~~
matthewowen
NB the word "most". By your own admission, you make this journey once or twice
a year.

~~~
Swizec
And if it took any longer, I'd make this journey even less.

302,382 people flew from SFO to Europe in May 2016. That's a lot of people.
Almost 5% of the Bay Area population and there are 2 more international
airports in the region. [0]

[0]
[http://media.flysfo.com.s3.amazonaws.com/media/sfo/media/air...](http://media.flysfo.com.s3.amazonaws.com/media/sfo/media/air-
traffic/as201605.pdf)

~~~
mcbits
Collectively far more people are flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles, San
Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Portland, and Seattle each month.
If they could all show up at the airport 5 minutes early, hop in a tiny drone-
jet with 3-4 other passengers and take off, not having to deal with security
would be icing on the cake in terms of convenience.

------
daveslash
Admittedly, this is not a high quality comment, but I've always liked The Far
Side's 1988 speculation of Cooper's fate.
[http://imgur.com/snDErQi](http://imgur.com/snDErQi)

~~~
Natsu
That may not be far off. It seems to me like the simplest explanation is that
he was injured during the jump and died sometime later, with his body never
being found. So he managed to conceal himself and died where no one could find
him.

------
13of40
"She said staff time and manpower devoted to the case is diverting from
programs that more urgently need attention, so the FBI decided to close its
active investigation."

I'm surprised they don't have an (even unannounced) THX-1138 style limit on
how much effort they spend on a single suspect. My wife had her purse stolen
and about $10,000 extracted from various accounts a few years back, and the
amount of effort they spent on the case is far less than a 20th of this one.

~~~
protomyth
I cannot imagine it would be "career enhancing" to be an FBI agent assigned to
DB Cooper in the 2010's.

~~~
j1vms
Unless, of course, you are Fox Mulder.

Then it would matter not that it isn't quite career enhancing. And, it's
exactly the kind of case you want to be on.

~~~
krapp
"It turns out DB Cooper was a shapeshifting alien hybrid, and that most of the
incident was a false memory construct implanted by the Men In Black to hide
the fact that he didn't escape using a parachute, but a teleporter."

~~~
johan_larson
Already better than season 10. Bring it on.

------
secabeen
He's dead, and he died in or shortly after the jump. Other than the money that
the kid found near the Columbia River, none of the bills given to him as
ransom have ever been found in circulation, anywhere. Whatever fortune he
received from the FBI was not beneficially used by him, or anyone else he
could have paid with it.

~~~
superuser2
>none of the bills given to him as ransom have ever been found in circulation,
anywhere

How extensive really is surveillance of bill serial numbers? I mean, sure, he
couldn't show up to close on a house with suitcases fully of those bills, but
if it's not every routine deposit at every bank, seems possible that he could
have spent it slowly.

~~~
pkaeding
I don't know how often serial numbers are checked, but I imagine that if those
bills had been in circulation, they would have been retired by now (banks will
take damaged/worn-out bills out of circulation to be replaced). I'm sure that
the serial numbers are recorded when bills are taken out of circulation, so if
the DB Cooper money was circulating, the FBI would have heard about it.

------
devy
For the ones who's unfamiliar with this case, there is a very detailed
wikipedia page with close to 200 references for this topic:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper)

------
elicash
I remember hearing about this case towards the end of Mad Men:
[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/04/16/don_draper_to...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/04/16/don_draper_to_become_d_b_cooper_in_mad_men_finale_a_skyjacking_expert_weighs.html)

------
fauria
For those of you interested in the technical details of the hijack, USPA's
magazine Parachutist published an interesting and thorough series of articles
on the topic back in 2010: [http://parachutistonline.com/feature/secrets-db-
cooper-part-...](http://parachutistonline.com/feature/secrets-db-cooper-part-
one-notorious-flight-305)

------
kolanos
Anyone else not terribly convinced about the FBI's insistence that Dan Cooper
didn't survive the jump when all the copycats who also parachuted, in similar
areas (Utah, Nevada, etc.) all survived? In fact, one of the copycats is
pretty much the exact same jump aside from the location (Utah instead of
Washington), same 727 aircraft and everything.

~~~
mikeash
One death out of sixteen jumps is about the fatality rate I'd expect for
parachuting out of an airliner like that.

~~~
Fuzzwah
While it is a DC9 not a 727, the dropzone at Perris kind of proves that wrong:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TtL2cmlcM&t=3m30s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TtL2cmlcM&t=3m30s)

~~~
lloyddobbler
Was just about to come on here and post this. I've got 5 jumps out of the
Perris jet (while it was still flying).

Interestingly, all the DB Cooper stuff was one reason Perris shut it down. It
cost them an inordinate amount of money to get through the red tape to be able
to allow sport skydiving out of it (courtesy of the 'Cooper Lock'
modifications), that once the engines came due for maintenance, they opted not
to throw more money down the drain. It was a sad, sad day for the skydiving
world.

~~~
emilburzo
Damn, I'm jealous.

What's it like to jump the jet?

The most impressive (for me) aircrafts that I jumped were the C-27J Spartan
and MI8 helicopter, but I don't think they come close to the jet.

------
Apocryphon
Newsradio had an answer to this mystery far before these other shows:
[http://kentuckysportsradio.com/pop-culture/the-legend-of-
d-b...](http://kentuckysportsradio.com/pop-culture/the-legend-of-d-b-cooper-
in-pop-culture/)

------
verandaguy
And just like that, Tommy Wiseau can breathe a sigh of relief[0].

    
    
      [0] https://xkcd.com/1400/

~~~
Viper007Bond
Clickable: [https://xkcd.com/1400/](https://xkcd.com/1400/)

------
anotheryou
Comment/Story from the Widow of one of the Suspects:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3sdg9u...](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3sdg9u/db_cooper_examining_the_1995_deathbed_confession/cz2lk61)

No idea if it's really the 75yo posting to reddit, but the story is so
elaborate, if it's a hoax I'd still like it.

and a picture:
[http://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2000/08/22/ca3bd939-a...](http://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2000/08/22/ca3bd939-a642-11e2-a3f0-029118418759/thumbnail/620x350/d259a147e1f2e21d1d7a295a4a155b42/image227044x.jpg)

------
russdill
They apparently have some DNA from the tie he left behind. It'd be interesting
to add it to GEDmatch.

~~~
l33tbro
They talk about it in the article. It may have been run surreptitiously.

------
twhb
Original source: [https://www.fbi.gov/seattle/press-releases/2016/update-on-
in...](https://www.fbi.gov/seattle/press-releases/2016/update-on-
investigation-of-1971-hijacking-by-d.b.-cooper)

KOMO seems to have misinterpreted the press release: the FBI is not closing
the case, they're discontinuing active investigation. The case remains open,
and new physical evidence is still accepted.

------
caf
I think about the DB Cooper hijacking every time I fly on a B717 (not the same
aircraft model obviously, but has the same centrally-mounted rear emergency
exit).

------
hudibras
Growing up in suburban Seattle in the 1980s, all of us kids had great fun
speculating on whose dad could secretly be D.B. Cooper.

------
pcunite
In the sketches, he looks like Cary Grant.

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pencildiver
I thought this case was solved in Prison Break...

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rand1012
If only they put so much work into investigating Hillary Clinton.

~~~
kelvin0
If a puppet seems astray, who is at fault? The puppet or the puppeteer?

