DB Cooper Update: Why the FBI reopened the 53-year-old hijacking case

The discovery of a parachute possibly linked to DB Cooper, the unidentified man who hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight in the 1970s, has sparked an FBI investigation.

Cooper demanded and received four parachutes as part of his ransom conditions. The parachutes included two primary chutes and two reserve chutes, giving him options for his escape.

The request gave rise to speculation that Cooper wanted to create the illusion that he could take a hostage. This strategy probably kept anyone from tampering with the equipment and ensured that his plan remained intact.

The Washington State History Museum houses one of the four parachutes.

“Cooper required four parachutes during the hijacking,” said museum director Derek Nguyen Newsweek. “When the exchange was made in Seattle, he was provided with four parachutes. He jumped from the plane with two parachutes and left two in the plane. We have one of the two parachutes left on the plane in our collection.”

A parachute has now been discovered by the siblings of a prime suspect. For a time, the FBI focused on Richard Floyd McCoy II, a suspect arrested in a similar hijacking just five months after Cooper’s crime.

In 2020, McCoy’s children, Chanté and Richard III “Rick” McCoy, reached out to YouTube star Dan Gryder, who is conducting his own investigation into the Cooper case. He had contacted them earlier, but the siblings waited until after their mother’s death to reach out.

Gryder, who has been investigating the case for over 20 years, chronicled his findings in a two-part series on his YouTube channel, “Probable Cause,” released in 2021 and 2022. The series reveals his process of connecting the evidence, including footage of him unveiled the parachute in an outbuilding on the McCoy family’s property in North Carolina in July 2022, according to Cowboy State Daily.

After watching Gryder’s first two videos, FBI agents reached out to both Rick and Gryder to inspect the parachute. It was the first action taken by the agency since it closed the case in 2016 pending new evidence, the outlet reported.

“While the FBI will no longer be actively investigating this case, should specific physical evidence emerge — specifically related to the parachutes or the money taken by the hijacker — individuals with these materials are asked to contact their local FBI field office,” the FBI said in the press release from 2016.

In September 2023, Gryder and Rick traveled to Richmond, Virginia to meet with FBI agents, who collected the harness and parachute as evidence, along with a skydive log found by Chanté. The log was in line with the timeline of both hijackings.

Gryder recently released a third video, “DB Cooper: Deep FBI Update,” in which he revealed the FBI’s latest efforts related to his discoveries.

Newsweek contacted the FBI to see if they are still investigating the latest discoveries.

What happened to DB Cooper?

On November 21, 1971, Cooper bought a one-way ticket to Seattle. While the Boeing 727 flight was airborne, Cooper handed flight attendant Florence Schaffner a note claiming he had a bomb in his briefcase.

After examining what appeared to be a makeshift bomb—its authenticity remains unclear—Schaffner took the note to the plane’s captain, William A. Scott.

The neatly typed note called for four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills.

Scott landed the plane safely at the Seattle-Tacoma airport, where the passengers disembarked. However, Cooper, four members of the flight crew and the pilot remained on board.

Authorities provided Cooper’s parachutes and money for the plane. Cooper then ordered the plane to fly toward Mexico City. In mid-flight, he demanded that the entire staff move to the cockpit.

After speaking with the flight crew over the plane’s internal telephone, Cooper stopped communicating with them. When the plane landed, he was gone. Authorities believe he jumped out of the back of the plane with a parachute and cash in hand.

Airport security in the 1970s was not up to today’s standards, and investigators never determined exactly when Cooper left the plane, making it difficult to pinpoint his landing spot.

Who was DB Cooper?

Officially, DB Cooper has never been found.

The FBI launched an investigation to locate the mysterious person and interviewed more than 800 suspects in 1976.

Robert Rackstraw, a former US Army paratrooper, became another suspect. Many believed he could have used his top-level military training to hijack the plane and successfully parachute out.

Rackstraw often got into trouble with the law. In 1978, he tried to fake his own death by crashing a rented plane into Monterey Bay, California. Investigators found him a few months later and charged him with stealing a plane and passing bad checks. He spent two years in prison for his crimes.

Other suspects over the years included Kenneth Peter Christiansen, Jack Coffelt, Lynn Doyle Cooper, Barbara Dayton, William Gossett, Robert Lepsy, John List, Ted Mayfield, Sheridan Peterson, Robert Rackstraw, Walter R. Reca, William J. Smith, and Duane Weber. but they were all eventually excluded.

How much money did DB Cooper steal?

Cooper hijacked a plane, demanded $200,000 in cash and successfully stole the money, disappearing into the night after parachuting from the plane.

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