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

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

The request fueled speculation that Cooper wanted to create the illusion that he could take a hostage. This strategy likely stopped anyone from tampering with the equipment, keeping his plan intact.

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

“Cooper demanded four parachutes during the hijacking,” said museum director Derek Nguyen Newsweek. “When the exchange took place in Seattle, he was given four parachutes. He jumped out of the plane with two parachutes and left two behind in the plane. We still have one of the two parachutes that remained in the plane in our collection.”

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

In 2020, McCoy’s children, Chanté and Richard III “Rick” McCoy, contacted 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 more than two decades, has 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 piecing together the evidence, including footage. of how he exposed the parachute in an outbuilding on the McCoy family estate in North Carolina in July 2022, according to Cowboy stands daily.

After viewing Gryder’s first two videos, FBI agents contacted both Rick and Gryder to inspect the parachute. It was the first action the agency took since closing the case in 2016 pending new evidence, the outlet reported.

“Although the FBI will no longer be actively investigating this matter, individuals with this material are asked to contact their local FBI field office if any specific physical evidence should emerge – specifically related to the parachutes or money captured by the hijacker the FBI said. the 2016 press release.

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 skydiving logbook found by Chanté. The log matched the timeline of both hijackings.

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

Newsweek contacted the FBI to inquire whether they are still investigating the recent discoveries.

What happened to DB Cooper?

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

After investigating what appeared to be an improvised bomb — its authenticity remains unclear — Schaffner took the note to the flight’s captain, William A. Scott.

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

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

Authorities delivered Cooper’s parachutes and money to the plane. Cooper then ordered the plane to fly towards Mexico City. Halfway through the flight he demanded that all personnel move to the cockpit.

After speaking to the flight crew via the aircraft’s internal telephone, Cooper stopped communicating with them. When the plane landed, he was gone. Authorities believe he jumped from 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 were never able to determine exactly when Cooper left the plane, making it difficult to determine his landing site.

Who was DB Cooper?

Officially, DB Cooper was never 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 military training to successfully hijack the plane and parachute out.

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

Other suspects over the years have 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 in the end they were all excluded.

How much money did DB Cooper steal?

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

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