D.B. Cooper Skyjacking: A New Theory

[Alt+F4]

I’m feeling a bit “9/11ed” out at the moment and a few recent posts here regarding parachuting reminded me of a long held theory I’ve had regarding the D.B. Cooper skyjacking. So here it goes….

Official Story: In 1971 Dan (D.B. Cooper) hijacks a Boeing 727, gets a $200,000 ransom then leaps from the back of the plane (the 727 has a rear decending staircase) with the money, never to be seen again.

Some facts to keep in mind:

- The plane’s altitude was about 10,000 feet and it was going 150-180 knots.
- He jumped in a World War II era civilian parachute.
- He jumped at night and the weather was awful.
- He jumped over a dense forest of pine and fir trees wearing only a business suit and loafers.
- The weight of the money was about 20 pounds.

Logic indicates that he didn’t survive the jump. But after more than 35 years of searching no body or trace of the parachute has ever been found.

Ok, so here’s my theory: he didn’t jump. He opened the rear staircase, tossed out the parachute then hid somewhere in the plane with the money. The cockpit crew saw the indicator light that the door had been opened, Cooper wasn’t in the passenger cabin when the plane landed so they just made the assumption he jumped.

Yes, I know that a few thousand of the money wash up in a river in the area, but that was 9 years later, plenty of time for the skyjacker to know the heat was off and plant the money himself to further the belief that he jumped. No more of the money has ever turned up.

[hellaeon]

he was part of the crew that snuck in and put explosives in the WTC buildings.

[Comsat Angel]

After tidying up books I haven't read for years, I noticed several along the lines of "great unsolved mysteries" - i shall peruse and see if they have any theories.

[ChristineR]

His body was yummy. His money was not.

[firecoins]

If he made a clean escape, why would he return to put money in the river?

[Alt+F4]

If he made a clean escape, why would he return to put money in the river?

I can only make assumptions here, but perhaps:

- Someone who knew was going to tip off the FBI
- To discourage any further search for the body

After all, only $6,000 was recovered.

[Skibum]

Logic indicates that he didn’t survive the jump.

Why does logic indicate that?

4 months after the DB cooper hijacking, Richard McCoy did pretty much the exact same thing and survived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper#Richard_McCoy.2C_Jr.

[Rodney]

he was part of the crew that snuck in and put explosives in the WTC buildings.
Not true. Cooper's skyjacking was a dress rehearsal for 9/11. Cooper is now a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bush Administration and trained the 9/11 hijackers. Like Cooper, they each bailed out (prior to impact) and are now on a desert island with the Bush family's buddy Osama Bin Laden plotting a nuclear attack on Election Eve 2008, so that W can use that as a pretext to declare a "national emergency" and call off the election, thus becoming President-for-Life.

[Alt+F4]

4 months after the DB cooper hijacking, Richard McCoy did pretty much the exact same thing and survived.

Is there evidence that McCoy really did jump?

[ConspiRaider]

So basically like Harrison Ford in the flick Air Force One? Possible but how'd he get off the plane? I suppose if he had decent gams he could have dressed up as a stew or something?

[greyleonard]

I've always loved this story, but haven't thought about in a while.

Why should we assume he was only wearing a business suit and loafers?
We don't know what he had on under his suit, nor do we know the contents of his briefcase.

What do you think of the possibility that Duane Weber was D.B.?

[Unsecured Coins]

I think it was Chris Weber. Yes, the basketball player.

Other than that, I have nothing.

[twinstead]

I can only make assumptions here, but perhaps:

- Someone who knew was going to tip off the FBI
- To discourage any further search for the body

After all, only $6,000 was recovered.

LOL now you're getting all A-Train on us ;)

[Peephole]

DB died two years ago in an Illinois prison.

True story.

[geni]

Ok, so here’s my theory: he didn’t jump. He opened the rear staircase, tossed out the parachute then hid somewhere in the plane with the money. The cockpit crew saw the indicator light that the door had been opened, Cooper wasn’t in the passenger cabin when the plane landed so they just made the assumption he jumped.


Doesn't fit with the stairway bump.

[ConspiRaider]

I think it was Chris Weber. Yes, the basketball player.

Other than that, I have nothing.
Could be. I mean sure, Chris Webber of the Detroit Pistons wasn't born until 2 years after the incident but can Webber prove he WASN'T on that airliner?

I'm still thinking Cooper was a stewardess all along. She changed into the Cooper disguise in the john, did this bogus "jump", hid the money in the starboard landing gear mechanism, came back as the stew and began distributing dry roasted peanuts in the first class section.

I say this because several years later when I took a flight and bought an airline drink, the stewardess gave me change for a ten. I swear I recognized the serial number on that bill as being one of those issued as the ransom money...

[kookbreaker]

The thing I find amusing about the Cooper hijacking is that he was a small, thin man who had little more than a box of wires. When you loook at that setup and how the Avaiation community reacted, then compare it to Dyaln Avery mocking the passengers about 'tiny box cutters' and Fetzer boasting about how he'd beat the hijackers to death with his luggage (after a series of Jackie Chan moves, of course)...well let's just say I get real disgusted, real fast.

[Scott Sommers]

Have you guys been reading anything? By now, everyone knows the WTC Buildings were turned into foam by a the Death Star. I know you thought it was just a prop from the movie, but no...we now have three PhDs telling us the film was real and that Wookie really is your friend.

Maybe Cooper was the machine operator, but there were no parachuting terrorists on 9/11.

[Porkpie Hat]

His real name was D.B. Cooperstein.

WAKE UP!

[Cl1mh4224rd]

Another old JREF thread (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=110771) on DB Cooper.


Two D.B. Cooper threads in the 9/11 Conspiracy Theories subforum? :confused:

[Horatius]

Two D.B. Cooper threads in the 9/11 Conspiracy Theories subforum? :confused:



They date from before the split into 911/ and general CT sub-fora. They didn't bother sorting out all the old threads.

[uke2se]

Saw a docu about this a few weeks ago. It made a rather good case for DB having jumped but landing in the lake and drowning in the cold water.

My money is on that he died that night.

[Danton]

Could be. I mean sure, Chris Webber of the Detroit Pistons wasn't born until 2 years after the incident but can Webber prove he WASN'T on that airliner?

Completely off-topic here, but I'm surprised you remember C-Webb from his half season with Detroit (although they did make the Eastern Conference Finals that year), because I've always associated him with the early 2000's Kings, back when they had Vlade, Peja, and J-Will.

Semi on-topic: Maybe secretly being D.B. Cooper in a past life was how Webber's knees got so messed up.

[Alt+F4]

Saw a docu about this a few weeks ago. It made a rather good case for DB having jumped but landing in the lake and drowning in the cold water.

My money is on that he died that night.

Do you remember the name of the documentary? Did they ever dredge the lake? After all these years the money and body would be long gone but metal from the parachute could still be found.

Back to the parachute, since he rejected the military parachute in favor of the civilian ones that tells us he had probably went to skydiving school. How many were there in the U.S. in 1971? Even if there were a thousand I wonder if the FBI checked them all.

[BStrong]

I'm not endorsing this theory, but here it is:

http://adventurebooks.newsvine.com/_news/2011/01/08/5792698-on-the-hunt-for-db-cooper-with-the-history-channel

[uke2se]

Do you remember the name of the documentary? Did they ever dredge the lake? After all these years the money and body would be long gone but metal from the parachute could still be found.


Sorry, can't recall. I sort of stumbled on it while on the computer. As I recall, they did dredge the lake and didn't find anything. Then again, it's a big lake as I understand it.

They had a nice theory for how the money ended up in the riverbank. According to the theory, it had started in the lake or the river, washed down river into the larger river and then got caught up in a ship's prop or something and got dragged to the approximate location where it was found.

They also talked about DB chosing the worst parachute of the ones available to him, and that if he'd gone with the other option, he'd been more likely to survive.

ETA: Googled up the name of the docu. It was called "Flygkaparen som lyckades smita", Swedish for "The airjacker who got away". Can't find out if there's an English title.

[Accidental Martyr]

LA Times article about Cooper hijacking.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/08/mystery-lovers-rejoice-db-cooper-legend-lives-on.html