D.B. Cooper and Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 Hijacking Money - Infamous Crime Scenes on Waymarking.com

According to "D.B. Cooper - Wikipedia" and "The Columbian" newspaper, on Wednesday, November 24, 1971, D.B. Cooper (aka "Dan Cooper") boarded Boeing 727-100 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 at Portland International Airport (PDX) enroute to Sea/Tac Airport (SEA).

D.B. Cooper, a man in his mid-forties, wore a black raincoat, loafers, dark suit, neatly pressed white collared shirt, black necktie, black sunglasses and mother-of-pearl tie pin. Once aloft he handed a note to the flight attendant on board telling her he had a bomb in a briefcase and threatened to blow up the plane. He demanded $200,000 in unmarked $20 bills and four parachutes — two main back chutes and two emergency chest chutes.

After the plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport, the passengers and the flight attendant were released and his demands were met, Cooper ordered the 727 to take off and head for Mexico City. He parachuted from the rear of the un-pressurized plane somewhere over Washington State, possibly Woodland, Washington or 20 miles east of there, taking the cash with him. He jumped about 8:15pm on a stormy night into freezing rain and dark unknown territory with high, rugged mountains, tall Douglas firs and numerous lakes, steams and rivers. Despite exhaustive searches, Cooper's body was never found and his whereabouts are unknown; the FBI believes he did not survive the jump.

Three significant clues have turned up in the case since then.

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.

On February 10, 1980, eight-year-old Brian Ingram was digging in the sand at Tina Bar on the bank of the Columbia River about 9 1/2 miles NW of Vancouver, Washington. He dug up three bundles of deteriorating $20 bills totaling approximately $5,800 of D.B. Cooper's money. The bills matched the serial numbers that the FBI had recorded. The FBI searched 150 feet of the bank inch by inch but only bits and pieces of money were found. In 1986, the FBI retained a portion of Ingram’s find for evidence. In court, the FBI handed over a part of the find ($2,860) to Brian Ingram and Northwest Airlines Insurance Company. The insurance company, after many mergers and acquisitions, now has no trace of the money leaving Ingram's collection, the largest in the world. In 2007, Ingram planned to auction off the few bills that he still maintains in a bank vault.

And, in October of 2007, the FBI announced it obtained a partial DNA profile of Cooper from the J.C. Penny department store brand, black necktie he left on the hijacked plane.

The Cooper case (code-named "Norjak" by the FBI) still remains an unsolved mystery. On December 31, 2007, the FBI revived the unclosed case by publishing never before seen composite sketches and fact sheets on-line in an attempt to trigger memories that could possibly identify Cooper. In a press release, the FBI reiterated that it does not believe Cooper survived the jump. The FBI expressed an interest in obtaining his identity. As of February 2008, the remaining amount of money has not been found.

The community of Ariel in Cowlitz County, Washington, commemorates the incident with a celebration held annually called "D.B. Cooper Days."

Books:
• "D.B. Cooper: What Really Happened" by Max Gunther.
• "D.B. Cooper: Dead or Alive?" by Richard T. Tosaw (1984) which outlines the events in the hijacking. It also has a full list of serial numbers from the $20 notes that were given to D. B. Cooper.
• "D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy" by Bernie Rhodes and former FBI agent Russell Calame, was published in 1991.
• "Pursuit of D.B. Cooper" by J. D. Reed.
• "The Return of D.B. Cooper" by Gene Elmore.
• "Norjak: The Investigation of D.B. Cooper" by Ralph Himmelsbach and Thomas K. Worcester.

Instructions for logging waymark: A photograph is required of you (or your GPS receiver, if you are waymarking solo) at Fazio Bros. sign, 12112 NW Lower River Road about 9 1/2 miles NW of Vancouver. I was given permission to visit Tina Bar in order to get coordinates and photos. Public access to Tina Bar is no longer allowed.

Date of crime: 11/21/1971 Public access allowed: no Fee required: no Web site: [Web Link]

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