D. B. Cooper

On November 24, 1971, an unidentified man using the alias Dan Cooper, later and better known as D. B. Cooper, hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft flying from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington. Cooper told the flight crew he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 in ransom. After releasing the passengers in Seattle, Cooper directed the crew to refuel the aircraft and begin a second flight to Mexico City, with a refueling stop in Reno, Nevada. After taking off from Seattle, Cooper opened the aircraft's aft door, deployed the airstair, and parachuted to an uncertain fate over a remote, heavily wooded area of Southwest Washington. Because of a reporter's error, the aircraft hijacker became known as D. B. Cooper; the hijacker's true identity and fate remain unknown.