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D. B. Cooper: the Flight 305 hijacking (1971)
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1971-11-24 · A man buys a one-way ticket, Portland to Seattle on Northwest Orient Flight 305, in the name Dan Cooper; $2
1971-11-24 · Shortly after 3:00 p.m. PST: the hijacker hands a flight attendant a note saying he has a bomb (the FBI's r
1971-11-24 · He dictates his demands: $200,000 in cash by 5:00 p.m., two back and two front parachutes, a fuel truck at
1971-11-24 · Flight 305 lands at Seattle-Tacoma (the memo writes "PDT"; another FBI record gives 5:46). He receives $200
1971-11-24 · Second take-off from Seattle-Tacoma, bound for Reno with the captain, co-pilot, flight engineer and one fli
1971-11-24 · The hijacker tells the cockpit by interphone that he is having difficulty getting the stairs down (Northwes
1971-11-24 · Last intercom contact with the hijacker; just before it, the cockpit gets a signal that the aft stairs have
1971-11-24 · The captain feels an "oscillation", later taken as the hijacker's jump over southwest Washington (1971 FBI
1971-11-24 · Flight 305 lands at Reno with the aft stair down and the hijacker gone (the co-pilot was reported in 1980 a
1971-11-24 · FBI agents search the aircraft at Reno: the clip-on tie on seat 18E, an opened chest parachute with lines c
1971-11-25 · Helicopter and ground searches begin around Woodland and Lake Merwin; hampered by weather, they continue un
1971-11-26 · The FBI and Northwest place the 8:10 p.m. oscillation two to three miles south-west of Lake Merwin Dam and
1971-11-29 · The FBI Director's airtel to all offices sends the first artist's conception and the description: white man
1971-11-30 · The FBI's Seattle office circulates a summary of the case and the description; the Bureau is asked for a sk
1971-12-03 · The Attorney General announces a 34-page FBI "ransom list" of the bills' serial numbers, distributed nation
1971-12-09 · The FBI Laboratory reports no latent prints on the contents of the ashtray by the hijacker's seat
1972-01-06 · A simulated flight in the same 727 drops about 235 lb from the rear stairs; the stair springs back nearly c
1972-02-24 · The FBI reports that SR-71 flights over the drop area could not photograph it because of the weather
1972-03-08 · The FBI concludes he very likely left the aircraft near La Center at about 8:12 p.m. and landed in a wooded
1972-03-21 · A search by FBI agents and an Army unit from Fort Lewis, 300 men with nine helicopters, begins from Lake Me
1972-04-07 · Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. hijacks United Flight 855, a Boeing 727, takes $500,000 and parachutes over Utah; a
1972-06-24 · The FAA proposes that rear exits on large jets be made unopenable in flight (Notice 72-15, issued 20 June)
1972-11-24 · The FAA issues its "Rear Exit Security" rule, one year to the day after Flight 305; compliance by 28 August
1973-01-05 · FAA rule takes effect requiring screening of all airline passengers and carry-on baggage
1974-01-01 · Columbia River channel dredging deposits spoil on Tena Bar (year only)
1974-11-09 · McCoy, escaped from Lewisburg federal penitentiary on 10 August, is shot dead by an FBI agent in Virginia B
1976-11-24 · By the fifth anniversary the FBI has considered more than 800 suspects and eliminated all but two dozen
1979-01-01 · A 727 aft-stair placard is found about 13 miles from Castle Rock, Washington (January 1979 and east per The
1980-02-10 · An 8-year-old boy (now an adult) finds decayed bundles of ransom bills, 290 bills or $5,800, at Tena Bar on
1980-02-12 · The FBI announces in Portland that the bills match the ransom list; agents dig at the site and find only fr
1980-02-12 · The FBI's press release says the bills are still in sequence and suggests they were carried down a Washingt
1980-02-14 · A Portland State University geologist examines a trench at Tena Bar for the FBI; reported conclusion: the m
1980-02-15 · The FBI secures the Tena Bar site after finding no further money or evidence
1986-05-21 · A proposed judgment divides the money: the FBI keeps $280 as evidence and the finder and the airline's insu
2001-01-01 · The FBI takes a DNA sample from the clip-on tie (year only, per the FBI)
2007-12-31 · The FBI publishes "D.B. Cooper Redux" with the first evidence photographs and says Weber was ruled out by D
2008-04-01 · The FBI says a parachute found buried near Amboy, Washington, in March has no connection with the case
2009-03-01 · A citizen research team finds natural clay layers exposed on the eroded beach at Tena Bar
2009-03-17 · The FBI reports a citizen research team's work on the tie and the money, and a possible comic-book origin f
2011-08-08 · The FBI says DNA did not link L. D. Cooper to the tie, but that it does not know whether the DNA on the tie
2016-07-08 · The FBI redirects the resources allocated to the case and stops actively investigating
2016-07-12 · FBI Seattle announces the decision and asks only for physical evidence related to the parachutes or the mon
2019-07-09 · Robert Rackstraw, a suspect cleared by the FBI in 1979, dies in San Diego
2020-08-03 · A paper in Scientific Reports argues from diatoms on one bill that the money was immersed months after Nove
2021-08-06 · A private dig begins at Tena Bar looking for the parachutes and briefcase; I found no report of a find
2026-05-28 · A peer-reviewed paper on particles from the tie reports that some earlier findings were not supported on re
Item · The ticket: "Dan Cooper", Portland to Seattle, Flight 305, 24 November 1971
Item · The note, the bomb and the demands, 24 November 1971
Item · Seattle-Tacoma: the ransom, the four parachutes and the release of the passengers; the FBI's ransom list
Item · The second take-off, the aft airstair and the jump, evening of 24 November 1971
Item · Reno: the landing, the FBI's search of the aircraft and what was left behind, 24-25 November 1971
Item · What the hijacker looked like: the FBI's descriptions and composite sketches
Item · The search for the jump zone: the flight track, the weather, the 1971-72 searches and later finds
Item · The copycats of 1972 and the FAA rule that locked rear exits in flight (the "Cooper vane")
Item · Richard Floyd McCoy Jr.: the United 855 parachute hijacking (1972), his death (1974), and the FBI's elimination o
Item · The money at Tena Bar: $5,800 of the ransom found on the Columbia River, February 1980
Item · How did the money reach Tena Bar? The 1980 geology, the dredging question, the rubber bands and the diatoms
Item · The FBI reopens the case to the public: its stories of 2006, 2007 and 2009
Item · The clip-on tie left on seat 18E: the FBI's DNA work and a citizen team's particle analysis
Item · Other named suspects, all now dead, and what the FBI said about each
Item · The FBI stops actively investigating the case, July 2016
Item · The FBI's 1971 bulletin: "an artist's conception" of the hijacker and his description
Item · Photograph of the ticket issued to "Dan Cooper" for Flight 305, Portland to Seattle (FBI)
Item · The FBI's 2009 map: the flight path, the original suspected landing zone and where $5,800 was found
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