He hijacked a plane, got a ransom and disappeared into the sky. Secret ciphers gave him away. Love Note, or Terrorist's Ultimatum. An ordinary calm passenger
The man in the suit took his seat aboard the Boeing 727, ordered a bourbon and a soda. It would seem that there was nothing remarkable about this, but this is how the only unsolved case of hijacking in the history of US commercial aviation began. Usually, an air pirate quickly ends up in prison or in the next world, but almost half a century ago, an unknown person simply jumped out of a flying plane with money and disappeared. 47 years have passed, the case has been officially archived, but there are enthusiasts who believe that they have deciphered the secret messages, finally got to the bottom of the truth and identified the mysterious hijacker. studied incredible story, to which the American intelligence services could have a hand.
An ordinary calm passenger
Around noon on November 24, 1971, an unremarkable man walked up to the counter of Northwest Airlines at the airport in Portland, Oregon. For cash, he bought a ticket in the name of Dan Cooper on flight number 305 bound for Seattle, Washington. At that time, the plane was about a third full: six crew members plus 37 passengers. The flight was supposed to take about half an hour.
Climbing aboard, Cooper took his place - 18C, at the end of the plane. He was a quiet man in a business suit, white shirt and black tie, about 180 centimeters tall, looking about 45 years old - quite a typical businessman. In anticipation of the flight, he ordered himself a drink and seemed to even light up, and literally ten minutes after the plane took off from the ground, he handed a piece of paper to the flight attendant who was sitting nearby. She decided that this was the phone number of a lonely entrepreneur, and therefore removed it without reading it. However, he again attracted her attention: “Miss, you better take a look at the note. I have a bomb."
Cooper forced the shocked stewardess to sit next to him, and then opened his briefcase. In it, she saw wires and red blocks and was convinced that the “businessman” was not joking. Through her, he conveyed his demands to the captain of the aircraft. The list was short: four parachutes and $200,000. However, he clarified: parachutes should not be military, but civilian, without automatic opening, and money - 20-dollar bills without marks. And the airline must refuel the aircraft upon arrival.
At that time, the amount of 200 thousand was huge: the car was sold on average for 3.5 thousand, and a gallon of gasoline cost 36 cents. Adjusted for inflation, the requested ransom in 2018 would have been a little over $1.2 million. They agreed to Cooper's demands, the crew was advised to follow all the orders of the attacker. By the way, the flight attendants described the man, who immediately put on sunglasses, as calm, polite and well-read, in contrast to the take-me-to-Cuba invaders. According to them, he easily recognized the area over which the plane was flying.
Cooper wanted everything requested to be waiting for him at the airfield, so the passengers were told they would have to circle over the airport for a while "due to a technical problem." Banknotes were collected from all Seattle banks, and the Boeing landed only a couple of hours later.
After landing, the plane stood on a remote but illuminated part of the canvas. The lights inside were dimmed, the curtains on the windows were lowered, fearing snipers. An airline employee brought money and parachutes to Cooper, and after checking them, the passengers and two flight attendants were released. The remaining terrorist did not let them relax: the promised refueling was delayed due to a breakdown, and he immediately reminded of the bomb.
Left with the commander, co-pilot, flight engineer and stewardess, Cooper made demands for a new flight: he wanted to get to Mexico City. However, this had to be done not as usual, but under certain conditions. So, it was necessary to fly as slowly and as low as possible - at a maximum height of three thousand meters, although standard flights over long distances take place at about 10-11 thousand. He also demanded not to retract the landing gear, to lower the flaps by 15 degrees, and that the cabin was not under pressure. The rear ladder of the aircraft (and for the Boeing 727 it is located under the tail) should have been lowered. The hijacker was forced to refuse the last condition: takeoff would be too risky. Since there would not be enough fuel to reach Mexico City if the other requirements were met, Cooper agreed to make another refueling in the city of Reno, Nevada.
The plane took off at about 8pm. He was accompanied by two military fighters, and they flew over and under the "Boeing": so it was impossible to notice them from the cabin. After takeoff, Cooper ordered the only flight attendant left with him to lock himself in the cockpit with the pilots, and then independently lowered the rear airstairs. By then it was already dark and it was raining. Nothing happened for about ten minutes, then the back of the plane jerked, and the crew had to stabilize the aircraft. In two hours the plane will land in Reno, the police will search it, but neither Cooper nor the money, of course, will be there.
Schrödinger's hijacker
IN modern world similar situation seems absurd: well, how could a person without documents buy a plane ticket, and even carry a bomb in a briefcase? However, in the early 1970s, airports weren't too different from what they are today. bus stations: there were no traffic security officers closely watching everything, no dogs sniffing out explosives, not even frames at the entrance. Gradually, security was strengthened, but anyone could go inside: for example, people trying to shoot small change from passengers. And reports about the hijacking of an aircraft in a particular country appeared almost monthly.
Thanks to this, Dan Cooper managed to pull off his plan. By the way, due to a media error, he went down in history under the name D.B. Cooper. Both of these names, however, turned out to be false. It is believed that the name could have been taken from a comic strip about a Canadian military pilot.
Whatever the name of the hijacker, immediately after the incident, a real hunt began for him. Its scale was amazing: entire areas were combed both from the ground and from the air, all houses and apartments were checked, agents even imitated the flight of an airplane and threw off a 90-kilogram load depicting a criminal. The alleged landing site of the criminal was the vicinity of Lake Mervin in the state of Washington, but no traces of his presence were found there.
After himself, the man left on the plane only unused parachutes, a tie with a clip and 66 fingerprints. However, as it turns out after many years, almost all of them were unsuitable for identification. However, DNA samples will then be obtained from the clamp, but they will not match any of the suspects. The FBI later explained that the particles may not have belonged to the hijacker at all: he could borrow a tie from someone or buy a used one.
The clue was also the letters that came at first, supposedly sent by the hijacker to various newspapers. In them, an unknown person wrote that Dan Cooper was a fictitious name, that he was alive and was able to defeat the system and the "stupid government."
“I had to somehow apply what my uncle [Sam] taught me, and here I am - a very rich man,” one message said. However, nothing was found. Another point was also noted: there was a dark-haired and dark-eyed middle-aged man on the identikit, and some eyewitnesses spoke of unnatural hair - that is, a wig and even makeup.
Intelligence agencies initially believed that the mysterious Cooper had skydiving experience or was a paratrooper. This was the basis for the list of suspects. “After a few years, we came to the conclusion that this is not the case. No experienced skydiver would jump into a dark, dark night with rain and wind that hits the face at a speed of 320 kilometers per hour, in moccasins and a coat. It was too risky,” said agent Larry Carr, who was in charge of this case from 2006 to 2016.
As a result, the FBI began to lean towards the version that the hijacker did not survive the jump and either crashed or drowned: the parachute was almost impossible to control, and the clothes were not suitable for a rough landing, especially in a wooded area. This theory was indirectly confirmed nine years later. In 1980, a child found on the banks of the Columbia River a package with half-rotten 20-dollar bills (a total of 5.8 thousand). The investigation into the serial numbers of banknotes confirmed: this is part of the amount requested by Cooper. The rest of the money has not yet been found.
More than two dozen countries are participating in a massive search operation for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. We decided to remember others mysterious disappearances aircraft.
Amelia Earhart
First female pilot to fly Atlantic Ocean Amelia Earhart went missing in 1937. Her plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while trying to go around Earth. In total, the crew flew over 22 thousand miles, successfully covering 80% of the route - through the Atlantic, Equatorial Africa, Arabia, India and South East Asia. On July 2, Earhart went to small island Howland, located in the central part Pacific Ocean, however, it did not reach him. Despite a large-scale search operation, it was not possible to find Earhart, she was declared dead, although unofficial searches continued until our time. So, in May 2013, it was announced that the alleged wreckage of the aircraft was discovered by sonar in the area of \u200b\u200bNikumaroro Atoll in the Phoenix Archipelago. The main version of the disaster, according to which Earhart could not find a small island in the ocean, was not accepted by everyone. Other versions were put forward: that the plane was allegedly shot down and captured by the Japanese military, and even that she deliberately faked her death.
Bermuda Triangle
The area in the Atlantic Ocean, bounded by lines from Florida to Bermuda, on to Puerto Rico and back to Florida through the Bahamas, is known for the mysterious disappearances of marine and aircraft. The most famous case mentioned in connection with bermuda triangle, is the disappearance of five American Avenger bombers in 1945. The wreckage of these aircraft has never been found. In radio communications with the base, the pilots allegedly spoke of unexplained navigational equipment failures and unusual visual effects. After the disappearance of the Avengers, other planes were sent to search for them, one of which also disappeared without a trace. In 1965, a C-119 plane with 9 crew members went missing in the area, a case often associated with alien abduction. Supporters of the Bermuda Triangle mystery have put forward several dozen different theories, including assumptions about the abduction of ships by aliens from outer space, moving through holes in time or faults in space, and other paranormal reasons.
Boeing 727 hijacking
On November 24, 1971, a man traveling under the name Dan Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 while threatening to detonate a bomb he was allegedly carrying in his briefcase. The hijacker demanded $200,000 and four parachutes. The aircraft landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, near Seattle, Washington. There, money and parachutes were handed over to the hijacker, after which he released the passengers. Cooper then ordered the pilots to take off and jumped from the ramp in the tail section, presumably over southwestern part state of Washington. It was not possible to find Cooper and reveal his identity, the FBI said that he probably died during the jump. Following this incident, Boeing 727s were fitted with a device called the "Cooper paddle" that prevents the tailgate from opening during flight.
Boeing 747 explosion over New York
A Boeing 747 operating Trans World Airlines Flight 800 on July 17, 1996 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near New York City. All 230 people on board were killed. Among the versions of the crash was called a terrorist attack, but the investigation did not confirm this. It has also been suggested that a missile was fired at the aircraft from a US Navy vessel. It is worth noting that the film "Destination" was filmed on the basis of this particular plane crash.
Airbus A330 crash over the Atlantic Ocean
The worst plane crash in the history of Air France occurred on June 1, 2009. An Airbus A330 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. 228 people died. The aircraft was reported to have remained serviceable and under control prior to the impact with the water. Various versions of the incident were put forward in several documentaries and television programs shot on this occasion. The "black boxes" of the aircraft were discovered only two years after the crash. Freezing of the pitot tubes, the subsequent shutdown of the autopilot, and uncoordinated actions of the crew, which led to the stall, were named as the causes of the crash. It also later emerged that the pilot had slept for only one hour the day before the flight.
Dan Cooper became the first person in US history to hijack a plane for ransom. He jumped with a parachute from a height of 3 thousand meters, taking with him 200 thousand dollars. Having disappeared forever, the hijacker remained one of the main mysteries of the 20th century, whose true name has not been established to this day.
Flight 305
It was 1971. On the eve of Thanksgiving on November 24, Nortwest Orient operated a flight on one of the most short routes. The distance between Seattle and Portland is 233 km, which the Boeing 727 can cover in just 30 minutes. Flight 305 was announced at the Portland airport, and passengers rushed to the ticket office for tickets. To purchase them, an identity card was not required, so the name was indicated from the words of a citizen.
36 people boarded the aircraft (capacity - 94), piloted by a crew of two pilots, a flight engineer and two stewardesses. Among the passengers was a thin man in dark mirrored glasses, dressed as a businessman: suit, tie, black raincoat for rainy weather, Felt hat. On his shoulder, he carried a medium-sized travel bag. His seat (18C) was at the rear of the cabin next to flight attendant Florence Schaffner. The man appeared to be 40-45 years old. It was Dan Cooper.
Hijacking a plane for ransom
After a safe takeoff, the man asked the flight attendant to bring bourbon and soda, passing a note in exchange. The stewardess, accustomed to the attention of men, believed that the passenger was flirting with her, and was in no hurry to read it. But he insisted. The note said about the hijacking of the plane for ransom in the amount of two hundred thousand dollars. Armed with a bomb, the perpetrator threatened to explode aboard the ship if his demands were not met. In addition to money, Dan Cooper demanded parachutes: 2 shoulder and 2 safety.
Calling Tina Macklow, a crewmate, the girl was convinced of the seriousness of the man's intentions. He opened the bag and showed both meet The information was urgently transferred to the pilots. After contacting the airline and the secret services, the ship's commander was ordered to land the plane at the request of the hijacker at the Seattle-Tacoma airport in exchange for fulfilling his requirements. While money and parachutes were being prepared, the Boeing 727 circled in the air with frightened passengers on board. After delivering the cargo of money, the offender released everyone except the flight attendant Tina Macklow and the pilots. He ordered them to head for Mexico.
Leap into the unknown
The plane refueled and took off at 19-40 in the evening. The offender was persuaded to land in Reno due to a possible lack of fuel. Agreeing, he demanded to fly at low altitude at a speed of 320 km / h with the landing gear and flaps down. The stewardess, who finally noticed how he wrapped some ropes around his waist, Dan Cooper sent to the cockpit. From that moment on, no one saw him again.
The liner was accompanied by two jet aircraft, but the evening, rain and poor visibility did not allow them to notice anything during the flight. When the Boeing 727 landed in Reno, two parachutes and Cooper's tie were found on board. Any other evidence was missing, including the note. Around 20 hours 10 minutes, the instruments showed depressurization of the cabin, which may indicate that D. B. Cooper jumped out with a parachute at that time, opening the rear ladder.
evidence
For the FBI, solving a mysterious crime was a matter of honor. According to the surveys of the crew and passengers, an identikit of the hijacker was compiled, a possible landing zone of 45 square meters was calculated. km in the area of Lake Mervin (Washington State), the serial numbers of banknotes transferred to the criminal were sent out. Despite the involvement of about forty FBI agents and a thorough search of the area by military forces, they could not find any trace of Cooper, alive or dead.
Name checks turned up nothing. Obviously it's fictional. Any versions were considered why the criminal called himself Cooper, the hero of a Belgian comic book that is not distributed in the United States. We were looking for a Canadian trail, where books were actively sold in those years. New techniques eventually made it possible to detect traces of chloride on the tie. This confirms that the bomb was real. There are opportunities to make the criminal's DNA, but there are no real suspects with whom it would be possible to identify him.
Dan Cooper did not use the money for all the years, because marked bills did not appear in circulation. In 1980, 3 packs of moldy dollar bills were found on the coast of Columbia, matching the numbers with those handed over to the criminal. 5 thousand 800 dollars were found 30 km from the alleged landing of the paratrooper who hijacked the plane. But it was kilometers upstream of the river, which is difficult to explain with simple logic.
Alive or not?
The main version remains the assumption of Cooper's death during the jump. She says the following in her support:
- 200,000 were handed over to the hijacker in $20 bills, which is a weight of 10 kg. Jumping with such a load in the absence of visibility and good knowledge of the terrain is an extremely risky undertaking, even for a well-trained skydiver.
- Of the two types of parachutes, D. B. Cooper chose a less maneuverable model, which indicates a lack of necessary professional skills.
- The discovered money indicates that it was washed ashore after long stay in water. Lake Mervyn is the most likely landing site for a skydiver, which explains the appearance of dollars in the river.
- Their appearance upstream of the Columbia River, connected to the lake, can be explained by the fact that the paratrooper caught on the blade of a passing passenger ship, which, in bad weather and poor visibility, went unnoticed by the team. In this case, Cooper's body is not found because it was thrown into the ocean.
- Versions that the perpetrator could be James Johnson, who committed a similar crime, or Kenneth Christiansen, a former airline steward, have not been confirmed.
1971 is marked by the fact that a few weeks after the events described, a letter came to the editorial office of one of the newspapers from a man who identified himself as Dan Cooper. He explained the robbery of the airline by the desire to live comfortably for 14 months, which remained to him until his death. Those who believed in the words of a stranger still adhere to the version that the legendary man is alive and managed to beat the FBI.
Taken measures
In 1972, the "boom" of hijackings in the United States began. Of the 31 cases, 15 completely repeated the scenario of D. B. Cooper. The authorities decided to stop similar crimes by taking urgent measures, including:
Closing the case
It took the FBI 45 years to admit its powerlessness in solving the hijacking case Boeing aircraft 727. Enormous sums of money were expended on experiments of various kinds, including dropping a parachutist from an aircraft under similar conditions, exploring the bottom of Lake Mervyn, and checking any call that gave a new lead in the case. On the official website on July 8, 2016, a message appeared about the termination of the investigation in order to reallocate resources in favor of other significant tasks.
In the city of Ariel, in the area of the alleged landing of a parachutist, parties are held annually in honor of the legendary hijacker. D. B. Cooper is a legend to the residents, a gentleman thief who defied the authorities during the highly unpopular Vietnam War. In books, feature films and songs, he appears as a symbol of a fearless person who jumped during a downpour and poor visibility towards immortality.
Robber Dan Cooper is the most mysterious criminal in the world. Although Jack was an ordinary maniac, of which there are dozens all over the world now, and Dan remained the only one who made the dream of millions come true - "so that we have everything, and we have nothing for it."
Although it is likely that he realized the dream for only a few minutes, but in the memory of people he remained the personification of a successful robber. The most curious thing is that until now no one knows who this lucky man really was, what his real name was and, most importantly, what became of him.
It is only known what he looked like and what he was wearing. But there is not a single photo of Cooper. There is only an image from an identikit, which depicts an ordinary, unremarkable person with a rather ordinary appearance. Eyewitnesses noted his protruding ears, thin lips, brown eyes, wide forehead and thinning hair. It was described that he was dressed rather conservatively and discreetly: a black raincoat, a black suit, a thin tie and a felt hat on his head. In those years, it was easy to get lost in the crowd in such an outfit - this is how thousands of Americans dressed.
When on November 24, 1971, he bought an air ticket to Seattle at the Portland airport for $18.52, he called himself Dan Cooper. This is not John Johnson, but also a very common name and surname in the USA. That was the time of “non-frightened aviators”, the problem of air terrorism did not yet exist, so it never occurred to anyone to let passengers through the metal detector frame, and their things through an X-ray machine. Thanks to this, Dan Cooper passed security quickly and without delay and took his seat "18C" on Northwest Airlines Flight 305, flying from Portland to Seattle. The flight was short, only half an hour of summer, the weather was good, the Boeing 727-100 was quite modern, the crew was experienced, so nothing foreshadowed anything extraordinary in this ordinary flight.
Dan Cooper - hijacking
Even before the turbines roared and the plane took off, Dan Cooper asked a 23-year-old flight attendant, Florence Schaffner, who was passing by, to bring him bourbon. This was also not unusual, many passengers brighten up for themselves air travel dose of alcohol. And even the fact that a passenger from seat 18C put a note in Schaffner's pocket as she placed a glass of bourbon on his table was also nothing extraordinary. Bored passengers now and then tried to entertain themselves in flight with a light flirtation with the charming Florence. Therefore, she did not express her emotions in any way and did not get the message.
But then the passenger said in a low voice: "Better read the note, miss." The girl took out a piece of paper and read it. “I have a bomb in my briefcase,” it was written in block letters. “If necessary, I am ready to blow it up. I want you to sit next to me. This is a robbery".
Florence obeyed and sat down beside her, and the passenger, just as quietly and calmly, began to state his demands to her. There were few of them: 200 thousand dollars in twenty-dollar bills and 4 parachutes, of which two were main and two were spare. The stewardess conveyed his wishes to the crew commander. He asked her to make sure that the robber was not bluffing.
So Schaffner went back to the passenger and asked to see the bomb. He did not argue and opened the briefcase so that the stewardess could see the red cylinders in it, similar to dynamite sticks, a bunch of wires and a battery.
The pilots decided not to take responsibility for checking if this explosive device worked and reported everything to the ground to the flight service. They also decided not to risk the lives of passengers and promised to fulfill the requirements of the robber. When the liner landed in Seattle, Cooper really delivered everything he ordered: 200 thousand dollars in twenty and parachutes.
After that, he allowed the 36 passengers on board and the stewardess Florence who liked him to leave the Boeing 727-100. Now, besides him, only the second stewardess Tina Macklow, Captain Scott, his assistant and navigator remained on the plane.
After refueling the "Boeing" in this composition, they took off. Dan Cooper was no brainless raider. His new requirements looked very competent: the direction of the flight to Mexico City, the height is not more than 3 thousand meters (he warned that he would check it with his hand-held altimeter), speed 320 km / h, keep the flaps at an angle of 15 degrees. He also ordered the crew to sit in the cockpit and not look into the cabin.
Cooper's scapula
After some time, a light flashed on the instrument panel in the cockpit, indicating the opening of the rear ladder. Captain Scott asked Cooper over the intercom what was wrong, received no answer, carefully opened the door and peered into the saloon. The passenger seats were empty. Dan Cooper apparently parachuted through the rear emergency exit. The only thing left after him was a tie with a mother-of-pearl clip and eight Raleigh cigarette butts.
It is curious that Dan Cooper wrote his name in the history of aviation not only by committing the only unsolved robbery in the air, but also by the fact that after his crime all Boeing 727s were equipped with a special device that did not allow opening the emergency hatch in flight. tail section of the aircraft. And this device was called "Cooper's spatula"!
The main plot of this story is future fate Dan Cooper. Surprisingly, it is a fact: the two fighters escorting the Boeing 727-100 did not notice the paratrooper. And searches on the ground, in which, in addition to the police, more than 400 soldiers participated, did not bring results. Dan Cooper landed in a remote area covered with forests and mountains with snowy peaks. FBI agents checked and interrogated more than a thousand people. But it did not give a single real clue.
The fate of the air robber
True, almost 20 years after this crime, in 1980, father and son Harold and Brian Ingram found on the banks of the Columbia River, northwest of Portland, a pack of old, faded twenty-dollar bills, presumably brought by the current from above. The Ingrams gave the $5,800 find to the police. Allegedly, experts have established that these are the same twenties that were issued to Dan Cooper as a ransom for the lives of passengers and crew.
So far the most probable version Dan Cooper is believed to have died upon landing. Before the jump, he did not check the parachutes, he took the main one in good condition, and the spare one was inoperative (wired). The bad guys played against him. weather and complex relief below. It was considered that he simply drowned in a lake or in a swamp. But for the beauty of the story, Dan Cooper had to survive and happily spend the rest of his life with the stolen money.
Among the most likely candidates for the role of the surviving Cooper was a certain Kenneth Peter Christiansen, who was trained in the army as a paratrooper and knew how to handle a parachute and explosives. He lived in Washington state, where Dan Cooper made his intriguing plane jump in 1971. And in 1972, it suddenly turned out that the poor Kenneth Christiansen had 14 thousand dollars to buy a house in Bonnie Lake, small town in the mountains, and a year later he bought another plot of land next to the house.
Curiously, before retiring, Christiansen worked as a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines, the same airline Dan Cooper robbed. Of alcohol, Kenneth was most fond of bourbon, and smoked Raleigh brand cigarettes. According to legend, on his deathbed, Kenneth whispered to his brother Lyle: - I have to tell you something from my past, but I can not do it!
Some time later, 77-year-old Lyle Christiansen saw in television program"Unsolved Crimes" plot about Dan Cooper's air robbery. When the identikit of the criminal was shown on TV, Lyle was stupefied, so the image resembled a photo of his brother Kenneth. And it became clear to him what he wanted to tell before his death.
Lyle did not remain silent and wrote about his discovery to the FBI. And he even made an interesting suggestion why Dan Cooper demanded a ransom in twenty-dollar bills. When he and Ken were young, during the Depression years, their father took them to a fair and there, winning a boxing ring, he earned $100, a fortune for their family. The cash prize was given out in twenties, which Lyle and Ken would remember for the rest of their lives.
On November 24, 1971, one of the most mysterious crimes in the history of air terrorism took place in the sky over the American Portland. Someone D. B. Cooper, threatening with a bomb, seized passenger Boeing 727, received a ransom of $200,000 and - disappeared forever after jumping out of a flying plane at an altitude of 3000 meters.
Love Note, or Terrorist Ultimatum
Passenger seat C18 was reserved in the name of Dan Cooper. Ironically, next to him was the seat of the stewardess, to whom Cooper handed the note. The girl thought that the passenger wanted to get acquainted, and, without reading, put the note in her pocket. But the man was persistent and persuaded the stewardess to read the message. It was said that there was a bomb in the plane and if the authorities did not hand over $ 200,000 to Cooper, he would blow up the plane right in the air. On board, not counting the staff, there were 36 people ...
Money and parachutes
The authorities made contact with the terrorist and decided to grant his "request". The plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Washington. Cooper demanded a ransom in 20-dollar bills and, in addition, give him ... four parachutes. When the terrorist's demands were met, the hijacker released the hostages, leaving two pilots, a flight attendant and a flight engineer on board. The flight continues...
night chase
The plane took off. The authorities took the incident seriously: on the orders of the FBI, US Air Force F-106 fighters began pursuing the airliner. Drama was given by several factors: a thunderstorm raging in the sky over Seattle and Oregon and a complete misunderstanding of where a terrorist armed with a bomb and equipped with four parachutes was flying.
Jump in the night
The denouement of the drama occurred half an hour after the resumption of the flight. Cooper demanded that the crew gather in the cockpit and not leave it. At 20:13 onboard indicators showed that there was a depressurization of the cabin: Cooper opened the door in the tail compartment. After conferring with the FBI agents, the pilot decided to continue the flight until the fuel supplies ran out, because no one was sure that the terrorist had left the plane.
