DB Cooper update: Why the FBI reopened the 53-year-old plane hijacking case

The discovery of a parachute possibly linked to DB Cooper, the unknown man who hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight in the 1970s, has reignited the FBI’s investigation.

As part of his ransom demands, Cooper demanded and received four parachutes. The parachutes included two primary chutes and two reserve chutes, which provided him with options for escape.

The request fueled speculation that Cooper wanted to create the illusion that he could take a hostage. This strategy likely stopped anyone from tampering with the equipment and ensured that their plan remained intact.

The Washington State History Museum houses one of the four parachutes.

“Cooper requested four parachutes during the hijacking,” said museum director Derek Nguyen Newsweek. “When the exchange took place in Seattle, he was provided with four parachutes. He jumped out of the plane with two parachutes and left two in the plane. We have one of the two parachutes left on the plane in our collection.”

Now a parachute has been discovered by the siblings of a main suspect. For a time, the FBI focused on Richard Floyd McCoy II, a suspect arrested for a similar hijacking just five months after Cooper’s crimes.

In 2020, McCoy’s children, Chanté and Richard III “Rick” McCoy, reached out to YouTube star Dan Gryder, who is conducting his own investigation into the Cooper case. He had contacted them previously, but the siblings waited until after their mother’s death to reach out.

Gryder, who has been investigating the case for over 20 years, chronicled his findings in a two-part series on his YouTube channel, Probable Cause, released in 2021 and 2022. The series reveals his process of linking the evidence, including footage of him discovering the parachute in an outbuilding on the McCoy family estate in North Carolina in July 2022 Cowboy State Daily.

After watching Gryder’s first two videos, FBI agents approached Rick and Gryder to inspect the parachute. It was the agency’s first action since closing the case in 2016, pending new evidence, the outlet reported.

“Although the FBI will no longer be actively investigating this case, individuals with these materials are asked to contact their local FBI field office if any specific physical evidence emerges – particularly related to the parachutes or that captured from the hijacker Money,” the FBI said in the 2016 press release.

In September 2023, Gryder and Rick traveled to Richmond, Virginia to meet with FBI agents, who collected the harness and parachute as evidence, as well as a skydiving logbook found by Chanté. The logbook matched the timeline of both kidnappings.

Gryder recently released a third video, “DB Cooper: Deep FBI Update,” in which he revealed the FBI’s recent efforts related to his discoveries.

Newsweek contacted the FBI to see if it was still investigating following the recent discoveries.

What happened to DB Cooper?

On November 21, 1971, Cooper purchased a one-way ticket to Seattle. While the Boeing 727 flight was in the air, Cooper handed stewardess Florence Schaffner a note claiming he had a bomb in his briefcase.

After examining what appeared to be a makeshift bomb – the authenticity of which remains unclear – Schaffner delivered the note to Captain William A. Scott.

The carefully typed note asked for four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills.

Scott landed the plane safely at Seattle-Tacoma Airport, where passengers disembarked. However, Cooper, four flight crew members and the pilot remained on board.

Authorities brought Cooper’s parachutes and money to the plane. Cooper then ordered the plane to head toward Mexico City. In the middle of the flight he asked all the staff to go into the cockpit.

After speaking to the flight crew on the plane’s internal telephone, Cooper stopped communicating with them. When the plane landed, he was gone. Authorities believe he jumped from the back of the plane with a parachute and cash in his hand.

Airport security in the 1970s was not up to today’s standards and investigators were never able to determine exactly when Cooper left the plane, making it difficult to determine his landing spot.

Who was DB Cooper?

DB Cooper was never officially found.

The FBI launched an investigation to locate the mysterious person and interviewed more than 800 suspects by 1976.

Robert Rackstraw, a former US Army paratrooper, became another suspect. Many believed he could have used his world-class military training to hijack the plane and successfully parachute out.

Rackstraw frequently found himself in trouble with the law. In 1978, he attempted to fake his own death by crashing a rented plane in Monterey Bay, California. Investigators found him a few months later and accused him of stealing a plane and writing bad checks. He served two years in prison for his crimes.

Other suspects over the years included Kenneth Peter Christiansen, Jack Coffelt, Lynn Doyle Cooper, Barbara Dayton, William Gossett, Robert Lepsy, John List, Ted Mayfield, Sheridan Peterson, Robert Rackstraw, Walter R. Reca, William J. Smith and Duane Weber, but they were all eventually excluded.

How much money did DB Cooper steal?

Cooper hijacked a plane, demanded $200,000 in cash, successfully stole the money and disappeared that night after parachuting out of the plane.

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