Who is DB Cooper? FBI Reopens 53-Year-Old Mystery After Discovering Hijacker’s Long-Lost Parachute

Northwest Orient Airlines flight was hijacked 53 years ago for a ransom of $200k.

It was an airline hijack whose mystery was never solved and the FBI in 2016 closed the case.

However, the FBI is reopening the case after 53 years due to some new developments.

Why is the FBI once again reopening the dormant case after almost half a century? Read on to know about this fascinating story.

FBI Reopens DB Cooper Plane Hijack Case After Parachute Discovery

An unidentified man boarded the Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft on November 24, 1971.

He occupied the rear seat of the Aircraft and carried a briefcase with him.

After some time he handed a note to a flight attendant in which he informed that he carried a bomb in his briefcase.

He asked the flight attendant to sit beside him and opened his briefcase for her to view what seemed like a bomb.

He made the following demands-

1. $200,000 in small denomination bills

2. Set of four parachutes

Once he receives the ransom he said he will free all the passengers.

The plane was on its flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington and on landing at Seattle he instructed the flight crew to refuel and get the aircraft ready to go to its new destination, Mexico City.

Thirty minutes into the flight the unidentified man often referred to as SB Cooper opened the rear door and parachuted into the night somewhere in the outskirts of Washington.

He was never seen again and the mystery has not been solved even after extensive investigation by the FBI.

However, now the parachute used by the hijacker has probably been recovered and this information has been forthcoming from the children of one of the suspects in the hijack, Richard Floyd McCoy II.

The siblings contacted YouTuber Gryder to their residence in 2022 and showed him a modified military parachute found in McCoy’s garage.

Gryder, who was investigating the case, told media house Cowboy State Daily that the parachute could be the same parachute used in the hijack.

Grysder stated,

“That rig is literally one in a billion,”

The two McCoy children suspected that their father could be the mysterious hijacker though they did not come out in public until the demise of their mother.

They also suspected that their mother could have been an accomplice in the hijack.

McCoy was a prime suspect because he attempted a copycat hijack and parachuted out of a United Airlines flight following a $500,000 ransom demand.

He was tracked down and arrested later with the ransom money.

He received a 45-year sentence but served only two years of his sentence at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary and escaped.

He was later killed in a shootout with FBI officials three months later in Virginia Beach.

On Monday Gryder posted a video on YouTube detailing how the FBI contacted him after viewing his videos in which he had documented the discovery of the parachutes.

Grinder’s friend who is himself a retired pilot to the media house Cowboy State Daily that the FBI are still to return the evidence confirming the suspicion that FBI meant business.

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