Abby Connolly
Can you imagine being a flight attendant and receiving a note from a passenger who said he had a bomb?
That terrifying moment actually happened on the flight skyjacker D.B. Cooper was on, prompting one of the most famous unsolved cases the FBI has ever worked on.
On November 24, 1971, one day before Thanksgiving, a man who called himself Dan or ‘D.B.’ Cooper boarded a flight heading from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington.
He was a quiet man in his mid-40s and wore a suit with a black tie and white shirt.
Dan ordered a drink while waiting for the plane to take off. Then, he handed a note to one of the young flight attendants, which informed her that he had a bomb in his briefcase and ordered her to sit down beside him.
Once the flight attendant was seated, Dan showed her the alleged bomb in his suitcase and had her write down a second note containing his list of demands.
He wanted $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes, and he wanted them ready for him when they landed in Seattle.
The flight attendant handed the second note off to the captain, who steered the plane in circles once they reached Seattle, telling the passengers there was a mechanical issue while Seattle police and airline staff assembled the money and parachutes on the ground.
Once he received his money and parachutes, Dan released all the passengers but only two of the six crew members. He then had the plane refueled and flown to Mexico City.
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