Where are they Now? No 452. D B Cooper . Amazing Pictures

UPDATE 25th March 2008 ... Wednesday, March 26, 2008
D B Cooper's parachute found by FBI?

The Boeing 727 -- first trijet introduced into commercial airline service had the same fuselage width as the Boeing 707 -- advanced , triple-slotted trailing edge flaps and new leading-edge slats, gave the 727 unprecedented low-speed landing and takeoff performance and could use smaller airports than the 707.

It also had a rear loading door for passengers, unique amongst civil airliners of the time.

On Wednesday November 24th 1971, Thanksgiving Eve, a man walked up to the flight counter of Northwest Orient Airlines in Portland Oregon, and bought a ticket for the 30 minute, Flight 305 to Seattle - a 30 minute hop.

He was later described as wearing a dark raincoat, dark suit with skinny black tie, and carrying an attaché case. He had perky ears, thin lips, a wide forehead, receding hair.He sat in the last row of the plane, 18-C, lit a cigarette, and ordered a bourbon and soda. He had given his name as Dan Cooper.

Shortly after the flight set off with 36 passengers and six crew members, he passed Florence Schaffner cute 23 year old stewardess a note. Printed in felt tippen, in capital letters, it read .. “I have a bomb in my briefcase. I want you to sit beside me,” it read. She did as he requested, then asked to see the bomb. She saw a tangle of wires, a battery, and six red sticks.

He told her what he wanted - $200,000 by 5:00 p.m. In cash. In a knapsack. Two back parachutes and two front parachutes. On l;anding a fuel truck ready to refuel. No funny stuff or he added manaceingly ..."I’ll do the job.” She passed these instructions to the captain when she got back, the man was wearing dark sunglasses.

The plane landed at Seattle -Tacoma, re-fuelled and the passengers were disemebarked as Dan Cooper had demanded.

Taking off ,he informed the captain to head for “Mexico City,” with more specific flight instructions: Keep the plane under 10,000 feet, with wing flaps at fifteen degrees, which would put the plane’s speed under 200 knots. He strapped the loads of cash to himself and slipped on two chutes—one in front.

Four United States Air Force F-106 jet fighters tracked the airliner.

Retreating to the rear of the plane he lowered the flight steps and stepped out into the roar of the engines , the night and our over the Cascades.

In late 1978, a placard, which contained instructions on how to lower the aft stairs of a 727, believed to be from the rear stairway of the plane from which Cooper jumped, was found just a few flying minutes north of Cooper's projected drop zone.

Aside from that placard and the later discovery in February 1980 by 14 year old Brian Ingram, of US$5,800 by the Columbia River in vancouver nothing concrete has been discovered about Dan Cooper (The jumper became known as D.B. Cooper after authorities questioned and then released a man named Daniel B. Cooper. That man was cleared, the name stuck).


There have been books, TV shows, documentaries, and death bed confessions even a fillum in 1981 The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper. Boeing also introduced a "Cooper" vane at the insistence of the FBI to prevent the rear steps being deployed in flight after several copycat attempts which all failed.

Nothing signficant has surfaced ... until now.

New York Magazine have a piece about the case "Unmasking D B Cooper" by geoffrey Gray in which the brother of the now dead Kenneth Peter Christiansen; Born Oct. 17, 1926, deceased July 30, 1994 from cancer. Lived in his own home in Bonney Lake, WA. So. Security #473 30 3599. He retired from NWA as a purser. His employee #33983.” ... according to his brother Lyle.

Traced to Lexington , South Carolina, Florence Schaffner, the stewardess who accepted Cooper’s note - she examined the photos of the ex NWA purser ...“I think you might be onto something here,” she said.

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The FBI have rejected the theory as a solution to the "NORJAK" case, saying that Christiansen was 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds, at least 4 inches shorter and about 30 pounds lighter than Dan Cooper.

PS : Another skyjack started at Portland (Maine not Oregon)according to the FBI .. some timelater .. CCTV pictures released by the FBI supposedly showing Atta and Alomari at Portland Jetport on 9/11/01. Click image for full size photo....More